The Lost Boys
by Elizabeth.M.Kelli
Summary: Somehow Harry Potter, Severus Snape, and Tom Riddle Jr. have found themselves in the same orphanage. Harry and Severus have no idea how they got there, and Tom doesn't know how the other two arrived in his room. Oh, and did I mention that they're eleven?
1. We'll Have to Sneak Out

Harry opened his eyes feeling disoriented on the day of his birthday. He could have sworn he had been somewhere else a moment ago, but now he was in some bed he didn't recognize. It definitely wasn't his cupboard, or the floor of that lighthouse in the middle of the water. So that left the question of where Harry was.

The room he was in was very clean, it wasn't clean in a disinfectant way, but in a tidy, organized sort of way. That was strange with the fact that Harry had always been a bit of a slob, and the fact that the room was clean, meant it wasn't his. Of course he could have told you that anyway, since he didn't recognize the room after all.

There were no decorations in the room. The walls were painted a very bland beige color, and the sheets of the bed he was in were a very inoffensive of-white color. There was another bed across the room Harry saw now, and it had someone in it still. All Harry could see was a bit of silky dark brown hair, which wasn't quite black.

Harry sat up curiously, looking around the room in earnest now. There was a third bed under the window on one side of the room, and this one also had a boy in it, but he was awake and looking around like Harry himself. This boy's hair was truly black, and looked shiny, like it was full of grease, or still damp out of a shower, and his hair was very long for a boy.

"Who are you?" The boy asked curiously looking at Harry.

"I'm Harry Potter," Harry replied calmly, "Who are you?"

"I'm Severus Snape," He told him sounding resentful at the sound of his last name. Harry was confused about it, but didn't say anything. He probably didn't want to talk about it.

"Do you know who the other boy is?" Harry inquired gesturing towards the third boy, who was sleeping in his bed. At least the other two boys assumed he was sleeping, because it looked like he was breathing evenly, like you would when you're asleep.

"My name is Tom Riddle," The boy said turning over. Turns out he hadn't been asleep, "It's my father's name, but I think he's dead. He never came to get me."

"Oh, both my parents are dead. They died in a car crash," Harry told the boy calmly.

"I wish my dad was dead," Severus muttered under his breath. Tom and Harry looked at him curiously, but Severus didn't say anything else.

"Do you know where we are?" Harry asked looking to Tom to change the subject from their parents.

"We're in my orphanage," Tom told them calmly as he got out of his bed, "I didn't have a roommate before, because they're all scared of me. I'm special you see. I can make things happen."

"Make things happen? You're a wizard aren't you?" Severus asked eagerly leaning forward so far Harry was afraid the long-haired boy was going to fall off.

"I don't know. I can make people do things, and I can make them hurt, and I can make things move," Tom told him shrugging his shoulders. He walked across the room to the wardrobe that was shoved between the door and Harry's bed.

"You are a wizard! Can you do things Harry?" Severus asked eagerly looking to the messy-haired boy.

"I guess. I was once running from my cousin, Dudley, and I jumped to hide behind the dumpster, but I ended up on the school roof," Harry told them with a shrug, "But it was just a stiff wind. I'm very light."

"No, that was apparition! That takes a lot of power! I bet you're a really powerful wizard. But Tom has all kinds of control, he must be really powerful too. I'm not, I know that," Severus sounded so excited at the beginning but he deflated by the end and sounded so dejected when he told them he wasn't a powerful wizard.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure. But how do you know about wizards?" Harry asked Severus gently. Harry would have never thought it was magic, and he wasn't sure he believed this new boy, but if Tom did strange things too there must be some kind of truth to it.

"My mom was a pureblood, and my dad was a muggle. My dad hated magic, he wouldn't stand for it in his house," Severus said sounding highly ashamed of his father.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense then. My parents died when I was a year old, they might have been a wizards," Harry theorized calmly, he didn't want to tell them that he was punished every time something strange happened in the Dursley household.

"A woman who can do magic is called a witch," Severus informed them calmly.

"They couldn't have been," Tom said suddenly from behind his wardrobe door.

"Why not?" Harry asked with a very confused look on his face.

"Because if they had been magical they wouldn't have died. That's why my mother couldn't have been a witch," Tom told then sounding very calm, but Harry could see his hand shaking on the doorknob.

"Witches and wizards die just like anyone else. I went to my grandmother's funeral, and everyone said she was a really good witch. I bet at least one of Harry's parents, and at least one of your parents, Tom , were a witch or a wizard. Or you guys are so strong it could have been both of your parents. I bet there's a way to find out your heritage with magic. We could go to Diagon Alley, I think I could find it," Severus offered sounding a little nervous.

"What's Diagon Alley?" Harry asked curiously. As a child he had been forbidden to ask questions so he was asking all the questions he could now.

"It's the shopping center of Great Britain. There are smaller towns and things with high magical population who have a shopping area, but most everything is in Diagon Alley,' Severus explained. Then he looked around briefly, and Harry knew why, both of them were in pajamas, but there were none of their clothes in sight. Harry was looking for the grossly oversized clothing that required belts and rolled sleeves to even be usable, and Severus was looking for his rather flowery t-shirts (which had once been his mother's) and thoroughly worn-out jeans. But neither set of horrible clothing was in sight.

"You two don't have any clothes do you?" Tom asked sounding exasperated as he stepped away from the wardrobe in a slightly worn collared shirt and well-pressed slacks.

"Well no, but I don't really want to wear my clothes anyway," Harry said sheepishly, "They're way too big for me; they were my cousin's."

"Mine aren't any good either, all my shirts used to be my mother's, and all my pants are far too worn to be worth much," Severus said looking at the floor.

"I'll give you some of mine for now, but they'll be to big on Harry, and too small on you Severus," Tom said pulling two more worn shirts, and pressed slacks from his wardrobe and tossing them to the two other boys.

"I'm used to things being too big," Harry said sheepishly as he changed his clothes.

"My clothes usually run a little small, the clothes my mum gives me are from when she was my age," Severus said following suit in putting Tom's clothes on.

"How do we get to Diagon Alley?' Harry asked rolling up the bottoms of his pants a little. They were just long enough to get in the way.

"Oh, well I'm not sure. I guess the Underground would work best," Severus said a little unsure, "Do you know how to ride the Underground?"

"Of course, I've lived with my mother's sister and her family my whole life. They live in Surrey," Harry told him, "Why do you ask?"

"I don't have any idea how to ride it," Severus admitted looking ashamed.

"We'll have to sneak out," Tom told them suddenly. Severus and Harry looked at the wavy-haired boy.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Severus asked exasperated.

"Oh, that's not so bad," Harry said on top of Severus' statement. Severus looked at Harry incredulously.

"How do you propose to sneak out?" Severus asked in a rather sarcastic drawl that instantly pissed Harry off for no reason he could tell.

"Well there aren't any bars on the window, and it's right up against a really sturdy looking branch, and it looks like there's an equally sturdy branch going over that wall over there," Harry told them as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, he included a small glare for the greasy-haired boy.

"Well, I wouldn't have thought of that," Tom said looking very thoughtful, "Normally I go out to the kitchen garden and go through the gap in the wall, but there's a much bigger chance of us getting noticed before we can get away."

"So you're smart?" Severus asked Harry looking rather appraisingly at the smaller boy.

"I guess. I mean my grades don't indicate that I am, because I got in trouble if I did better than my fat pig of a cousin," Harry said with a shrug.

"What grades did you get then?" Tom asked sounding vaguely curious.

"The worst in the entire school," Harry said with a smile, "it was really hard to be worse than Dudley. I had to purposely get every question on every test wrong for years."

"Really? What would have happened had you gotten one right?" Severus asked tugging sleeve down; it still showed his wrist.

"I probably would have done better than Dudley. I had to study to make sure I knew all the answers so I could get them all wrong. Dudley only got one right when he guessed and got lucky,' Harry told them with a shake of his head, "Well let's get going. We have to get to Diagon Alley. Where is it exactly?"

"It's through the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross road," Severus told the other two boys as Harry worked at prying open the window. In same age long past the window had been painted shut, but most of the paint had been picked away by the various occupants of this room whenever they happened to get bored of staring at plain walls. It took the three boys all of fifteen minutes to pry the window all the way open.

They didn't have a real problem until after Severus (who came out of the room third) was halfway across the branch heading towards the trunk of the tree. Severus' foot slipped on the branch and he only barely kept himself from falling off the tree, but when he was saving himself he happened to look down. It turns out that Severus is deathly afraid of heights.

It took almost two hours to get Severus across the tree, over the wall, and down onto the street outside. It also took Harry almost slipping four times, and Tom twelve. Severus continued to cling to the tree all the way across, and the other two boys had a lot of trouble getting him to loosen his grip enough to actually move at all.

Once they were on the ground again Severus sat huddled against the wall shaking for a few minutes before he was composed enough to start moving again. Harry kept a hold on Severus' arm so that Harry would be able to catch the other boy if his knees gave way. Tom took charge in leading them to the nearest Underground, because Harry not only was occupied with Severus, but he didn't know the way anyways

The walk through one of the less impressive areas of London was long, and not all that interesting. Before too long Severus had recovered enough from his fright on the tree to walk without Harry's support, but Harry watched him carefully, just in case. Tom continued to lead, and none of the boys spoke so much as a word. The silence wasn't the comfortable kind that often develops between people who know each other well, but nor was it the awkward kind that usually reared its head during introductions. This silence was a sort of middle ground, none of the boys felt overly comfortable (they didn't know each other well), but they were comfortable enough that they felt no need to fill their silence with chatter (not that any of them were prone to chatter anyway).

~*~

**I think a time-travel fic is a necessary addition to any fan fiction writer's repertoire, even though I hadn't really been thinking about writing one, but I kept thinking about a phrase Harry uses in his thoughts near the end of Deathly Hallows. That phrase being "The Lost Boys." I then ended up wondering what would have happened had they all had the same situations as cannon, but due to some weird instances they all end up at Hogwarts as first years together. This story is the result.**

**As I started it I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to go with this story. But I decided after writing roughly 2,000 words in what general direction the story was heading. I've planned one relationship, but I won't do anything with it for a very long time. I wonder if anyone will be able to guess what the relationship is.**

**I'm also going to put one of my character Emma's incarnations in this story, and anyone who can figure out who it is gets major brownie points from me. I may even give you one of my virtual "Join the Club…We've got T-shirts" t-shirts. So yeah, watch for her.**

**There are a lot of original characters, and I think I'm writing the cannon characters a little OOC, especially Tom, but I try to make Tom a little introverted and self-serving, because he's a Slytherin, no matter what I'm doing with the other characters Tom Riddle Jr. has to be a Slytherin. Severus has ended up being hyperactive, or something, not sure where I pulled that card from, and Harry's a little too take charge for where he was at his eleven-year-old state, but I'm working on it.**

** ~*~Elizabeth~*~**


	2. What's a Time Paradox?

The Underground station was rather grimy, and very small. There was a rather lack of people there, so the three boys got no notice. Tom and Harry diligently studied the map of the Underground that was posted on one wall, until they had decided which station was closest to Charing Cross. When that was done they pulled out Tom's meager money and bought three round trips on the Underground.

Severus looked around when they got on the Underground looking vaguely curious, and slightly uncomfortable. For all that Severus had grown up with a muggle father, in a muggle neighborhood, he had never been on the Underground, or anything like it. They didn't even have a car.

"Why are we looking for our magical ancestries anyway?" Tom asked suddenly when they got off the Underground several blocks from where they needed to be.

"Because, we want to know. Isn't it better to know this stuff than to wonder for the rest of your lives? I know where my parents came from, but you're both orphans and don't. I think it's better to know than to not. Knowledge is power," Severus told Tom stubbornly.

"I want to know the truth. My aunt and uncle hate my parents, I've never even seen a picture of them. They hate me for being their child. I want to know why," Harry told the wavy-haired boy quietly. Severus and Tom exchanged a glance, and then they looked at Harry. In that moment they all came to the decision to never mention their childhoods. None of them had been happy, and none of them really wanted to think about them. They would find out what they could about their parents, and they would leave the matter behind them forever.

~*~

Tom and Harry were both awestruck by Diagon Alley, although they showed it in very different ways. Harry stared at everything and almost got lost every other minute. Tom on the other hand adopted a small smile (the first either of the other two boys had seen on his face) and watched things avidly while he followed Severus to the large bookshop called 'Flourish and Blotts.'

The three boys split up to look for what they wanted, and each got promptly lost in the maze of shelves which was even larger than the outside indicated. There were stacks of books in the middle of aisles and some of them were so tall and teetered so hard Harry and Tom had a hard time believing they could stay up at all. The store was divided into sections (like any good bookstore), but the boys were having trouble figuring out what the sections were.

You see there was a book titled _Most Potente Potions_ next to one called _One Hundred Magical Herbs and Fungi. _Wasn't one of those books a potions book and the other herbology? Then there was the fact that all three boys kept getting distracted by sections that caught their eyes. Tome found the History of Dark Arts section, Severus found the Potions sections, and Harry found the Duelling section. It took three hours of browsing, getting lost, and getting distracted before one of them found what they were looking for.

There was a section on heredity potions and spells. It was one of the smaller areas in the store, but it was a section all the same. It was in the very back of the store in a very dusty looking corner, as if no one had looked at these books in decades. Funny enough it was Harry who found them, because the heredity potions and spells section butted up against the dueling and defense histories (which were slightly less dusty than the heredity potions and spells section). Tom found it not long after, because he was looking for more historical texts. Tom and Harry had already been browsing through the books for fifteen minutes before Severus came peeking around the corner for his two companions.

"So this is it?" Severus asked sitting on the floor with the other two boys

"Yeah, we're looking for something that won't be too hard to do. Preferably something we can do without spending any money," Harry replied flipping the page in his book.

"I bet the goblins at Gringotts could do something for us to find out if we have any money in the wizarding world. I don't my family went broke a long time ago, but still," Severus suggested.

"Why can't the goblins just tell us who our families are then?" Tom asked irritably slapping shut the book in his hands.

"They're not allowed. There's some kind of law or something. All they can do is find out if we have any vaults that we're entitled to," Severus told them.

"Then why didn't we go that first?" harry asked curiously.

"I didn't think about it till just now," Severus admitted sheepishly.

"Well lets go do that then," Harry said bouncing up of the floor and putting the book he had pulled down away.

"Fine," Tom said pulling himself off the ground slower than Harry and offering Severus a hand up.

"Okay, so the really big white building is where we're heading," Severus informed them as they wound their way through the maze of shelves and book-piles. It took a good half an hour for them to find their way out again, but they did and breathed in sweet fresh air, instead of the musty smell that comes with old books that have been sitting for decades.

"That one?" Harry asked pointing directly at Gringotts.

"Yeah, I told you it was the really big white one didn't I?" Severus replied leading the other two down the street towards Gringotts.

The bank was a very impressive thing to see. It was all in white marble, and was almost reminiscent of ancient roman architecture. Or at the outside was, on the inside it was still all white marble, but the style was much more reminiscent of the renaissance than ancient Rome. The desks were manned by small rather ugly creatures, which Harry and Tom (never having seen them before) assumed were goblins, because Severus had been talking about goblins before. There was one goblin near the back of the bank who didn't have any customers, so the three boys headed back there.

"Excuse me sir, is there anyway you could test me for an inheritance?" Harry asked politely when they reached the free goblin.

"What is your name?" The goblin asked sounding supremely bored.

"Harry Potter, sir," Harry said quietly, "My friend needs to be tested as well."

"His name?" The goblin asked jotting Harry's name on a piece of parchment.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr.," Tom told him. The goblin wrote down his name as well and looked up at them.

" I'll need three drops of blood from each of you," The goblin informed them with a nasty smile. Tom and harry held out their right hands with identical winces. Severus almost started laughing at them, but restrained himself at the last moment.

The goblin took a silver knife from somewhere under his desk and two small squares of parchment. The goblin then proceeded to cut small slits in their index fingers and squeeze exactly three drops of blood each onto each of the two squares.

The one on the right turned bright red, as if the blood had stained it through, and the other turned emerald green completely concealing the blood drops. The green one slowly faded back to plain parchment with three drops of blood while a number was written, as if by an invisible hand, on the crimson parchment.

"It seems Mister Potter is entitled to the contents of vault 134," The goblin informed them before stepping around his desk, "If you'll follow me I'll lead you to your vault." The goblin was much more polite now than he had been only a minute ago. Tom and Harry couldn't figure out why, but Severus was pretty sure he knew, and he was green with envy about it.

They were led onto a small cart, which could hold only maybe one more person without feeling unbearable. The three boys felt distinctly sick by the time they reached the vault deep under the back. 134 was one of the earlier vaults, from one of the older pureblood families. Or at the least the older families. Some of the older vaults were from half-blood and muggleborns, but it was so long ago their families were considered to be pureblood, even though it wasn't strictly true.

"Hold your hand against the door," The goblin ordered Harry rather forcefully. Well there goes the polite bit. But Harry did as he was bid. A key grew out of the keyhole and Harry drew his hand back in surprise. The key was still in the hole, however and Harry felt he should probably take it out.

Harry reached out and grasped the strangely shaped key and turned it to the left, there was a chorus of clicks and the door swung open, as if it had been oiled only yesterday. Inside there was an interesting sight, which made Severus and Tom both green with envy.

There were piles of gold, silver, and bronze coins; pieces of antique furniture that could fetch a fortune; shelves of books that looked distinctly expensive; and various object carefully arranged on the antique furniture, which none of the boys could guess at the use of. Severus knew they were probably magical artifacts of some kind, but he couldn't for the life of him at told Tom or Harry what in the world they were supposed to do.

"This is all mine?" Harry asked incredulously. He couldn't quite wrap his mind around that fact.

"I guess," Severus said calmly, "We should get some gold so that we can buy the stuff we need."

"I still don't see why the goblins couldn't tell us. I mean they have to know where the vault came from," Tom said sullenly leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Because there are laws. They have to follow the laws to a t in regards to wizards, and we have to follow the laws to a t in regards to the goblins. That's really the only way for us to coexist without killing each other," Severus explained as Harry gathered a bunch of coins and stuffed them into his pockets. By the time they were full and heavy enough to be uncomfortable Severus had forgotten about his companions in favor of examining the books on the shelves.

"Hey, this book. I think this might be what we need for Harry at least, we'll still have to buy stuff to find out about Tom, but this book is a Family Book. They automatically examine the pedigree of anyone related to the maker of the book," Severus said pulling a book off the shelf. He handed the heavy book to Harry.

As soon as the book touched Harry's hands it turned crimson, and words appeared on the spine and cover in gold. There was a large crest under the words "Harry James Potter." The crest was in gold and all values of red, from a dark red that was almost black to a red so light it could be called pink. There was a lion in the center of the crest with two wands crossing in front of the lion. Winding around the two wands was a snake, a snake which was silver, and stood out against the red, and stood out against the silver.

"That's the maker name on the cover, it's always the maker's name," Severus told Harry pointing to the name.

"But that's my name," Harry told the taller boy. Harry flipped the book open and a note fell out. The note was obviously in Harry's own handwriting, and it confused Harry more than it cleared up. What was worse was that the note was very short.

Harry,

I know you're confused, but I know what I did was right. I'm changing everything by taking you from that lighthouse, and taking Severus from that park and placing them here, with only the Potter Ancestral vault to give you any clues about why you're here. I assume Severus would know to come here, so I'm leaving you to it.

By the way, Happy Birthday Harry! Your present might be late (I'm not sure when you'll come to the vault), but it's on the table with the lions and snakes carved around the edges. I brought the table myself, so I guess it's sort of a birthday present too. But anyway the objects on the table are for your birthday.

Harry J. Potter

"I think I might have kidnapped myself," Harry told the other two boys handing the note off to Severus who was closer.

"What park?" Severus asked curiously.

"I don't know. But I know what lighthouse. There were all these letters addressed to me, and they were driving my uncle crazy, so he ran away, and we ended up in a lighthouse on a rock in the middle of water, I think it was the ocean, but it might have been the channel," Harry explained as Severus handed the note to Tom.

"Why aren't I mentioned?" Tom asked looking upset.

"I suppose because I brought Severus and myself to you," Harry said with a shrug as he opened the book again.

The first page was the crest again, and his name, but the second and third pages had two different people on them. On the left hand page was the name "James Potter" and under it was a list of his accomplishments. On the right hand page was the name "Lily Potter nee Evans" and a list of her accomplishments.

James Potter was a bit of a prankster if his achievements were to be believed. It said that he held the record for most pranks pulled in a week, and the making of the Marauder's Map (whatever that was). Lily was more respectable, she made valedictorian, and worked to blur the house lines by being best friends with the Slytherin, Severus Snape.

"I think you were my mum's friend," I told Severus in shock. Severus leaned over to look. I pointed at the line and what it said.

"I was one of your mother's achievements? That's weird. But I guess that means they were both magical," Severus said calmly, "It should talk about the book maker too though."

Harry turned the page until I found another page that said "Harry James Potter" at the top. This page made Harry and Severus's eyes widen. There was a very long list that included two pages, but the very first item said "Defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort."

"You defeated Voldemort?!" Severus yelled completely shocked. Voldemort was on the rise where he came from, and war was the norm.

"I guess, I don't remember it you know," Harry said defensively. The book went on to elaborate about the whole defeating-the-dark-lord thing. It said that he not only defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort, but he paused his rise to power when he was only a little over a year old.

"I'm officially impressed," Severus told Harry shaking his head. Harry really was an impressive person.

"Let's find that birthday present I was talking about," Harry said closing the book gently. They moved around the room looking for the table with the lions and snakes together on a table. When they found it they laughed a little. The snakes and lions were kissing! But the items on top of the table were confusing.

There were two wands, one of which was comfortable in Harry's hand, the other less so. There was a cloak of some silvery fabric, an old piece of parchment with a muggle post-it note on it stating "tap the parchment with your wand and say 'I solemnly Swear I am up to no good'", there was a small silver lighter, a golden winged ball, which was opened in the center, and in the center of the ball was a ring and a note.

The note was even a shorter than the one in the book. "All you need to defeat a dark lord."

"What does that mean?" Tom asked reading over Harry's shoulder.

"I don't know, but the book said that I defeated the 'Dark Lord Voldemort'. I guess this is the stuff I used to do that. Do you guys know what all this stuff is?" Harry said lifting the hinged ball.

"Well that's a snitch. It's used for a wizarding game played in the air on brooms. It's called quidditch. The cloak I think is an invisibility cloak. But I haven't seen one before so I'm not sure. The wands are obviously magical wands, that one looks like elder wood, but it can't be, because there's only one elder wand and it's a myth, but the other one is holly wood. Who knows what that parchment is. I suggest trying what the note on it says," Severus explained pointing to each object as he talked about it.

Harry picked up the holly wood wand (which was the wand that had felt more comfortable), and tapped the parchment, and said the words. Instantly ink seemed to flow from the wand and cover the parchment as if an invisible hand was writing the words (what was it with invisible hands in the wizarding world?). Before too long it was a map of some castle with the words 'Mssrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs, and Prongslet are proud to present the newly re-vamped Marauder's Map'.

"I think that might be Hogwarts," Severus said leaning towards the map and examining all the moving dots around the castle. There weren't all that many, two dozen moving about the school, and another hundred or so all contained in the room labeled 'kitchens'.

"What's Hogwarts? That seems like a stupid name," Harry asked/commented looking around at the taller boy.

"It's the magical school. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Severus told them calmly. Harry looked around the room a little before gathering up the things off the table in front of him.

"You know, I think we're in the center of a time paradox," Harry commented putting the ring on. It was when he put the ring on that he realized the stone was cracked down the center, right through a line embedded in the stone, along with a triangle and circle.

"Yeah, we might be," Severus conceded taking the parchment so Harry could tuck the notes into his pocket.

"What's a time paradox?" Tom asked sounding annoyed.

"It's a situation with time where everything seems to contradict themselves. Like the book says that Severus was my mom's best friend, but my mom died when I was a year old, and Severus is our age. Then all the stuff with notes from myself, and being the maker of a magical book, when I obviously didn't know about magic until this morning," Harry explained with a sigh.

"Oh, well okay," Tom said calmly.

~*~

**So this chapter is longer, and I sort of like where I ended, with the reality of the Time Paradox sort of semi-explained. More about it will be reealed later, but not a lot, a lot of this story is the fact that they don't _really_ know what is going happen (or rather what would have happened). You also have to remember that because Tom is Voldemort, no one will have any idea what's going on if Severus started to really explain about it. That's why I didn't go into a lot of details about it.**

**Also Severus grew up with a magical mother, but his father hated magic almost as much as the Dursleys,so everything he knows about the magical world was learned in secret, including his trips to Diagon Alley and stuff. it's not hugely important, but later it may be important for you to know that...Depends on how I write that bit of the story.**

**So thank you everyone for reviewing, I think I got more reviews or the first chapter of this story than I got for the entirety of some of my other stories, and everyone was pretty complimentary. I ask that you all critisize when you find something to critisize, and I also request that you tell me if there's something you'd like to see happen. I it fits in with my plan for the story I'll include it, with a mention of who requested. I already have one request from my amazing older sister, and it's coming (eventually). So that's it...**

**~*~Elizabeth~*~**


	3. Ollivander's is in the Other Direction

When the boys reached Flourish and Blotts they rushed to the back of the store without pausing. They got lost twice, but once they found the area they bought three books at random and rushed back to the front of the store. They had spent so much time in the bank they didn't have a lot of time left before they really needed to be back at the orphanage.

They paid for their purchases and tucked the map (which was still a map because they couldn't figure out how to hide) and the Family Book into the bag with their three books on hereditary magics. The Underground ride was quiet, but very crowded. It was rush hour, and the boys had to stand because all the seats were already taken. But that was highly typical of rush hour, so the boys weren't all that concerned.

The walk back to the orphanage was less than exciting. They all had slightly aching feet, from walking to the Underground this morning, walking through the bookstore, wandering around the vault, walking back through the bookstore, walking to the Underground, riding the Underground on their feet, then walking back to the orphanage. That would make anyone's feet hurt.

Of course these boys being who they are meant they couldn't have easily snuck through the gap in the wall, because standing in front of the gap was a tall auburn haired man. He was dressed in a flamboyant purple suit, and his hair was definitely too long to be called normal.

"I was wondering when you three would show up," He said calmly as the boys came up to him.

"And who are you?" Tom asked suspiciously.

"I'm Professor Dumbledore. I'm here to invite you to my school," The professor told them with this really strange twinkle to his eyes.

"You're really—" Severus started before Harry caught on and covered Severus's mouth so he couldn't say something he wasn't supposed to.

"What was that?" Professor Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling at an insane rate, and it was creeping Harry out. It was just pissing Tom off.

"Nothing, Severus was just confused," Harry told the twinkle eyed professor.

"Oh, well we should take this conversation indoors," The professor suggested slipping through the gap that looked too small for him to fit into. The boys exchanged looks and followed him through.

"So I'm not sure I like this guy," Tom whispered to Harry and Severus as they followed the crazy professor into the orphanage building.

"Now, I can tell that you all discovered the wizarding world somehow. You seem to have a bag from Flourish and Blotts. Might I inquire as to what you found to read?" Professor Dumbledore asked looking pointedly at the slightly bulging bag.

"No, I don't see that it's your business, sir," Harry replied calmly.

"If you think so," Dumbledore replied with a shrug, "But my point was to invite you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on September the 1st."

"Well, we obviously have some interest. It would be safe enough to say that we will be there in time for school," Tom replied calmly.

"Indeed. I will need to impress on you the type of behavior which will be unacceptable. Such as sneaking out as you three did today. You will need to stay on school grounds except for specific cases when you'll be allowed off. Such as Hogmeade weekends beginning in your third year," Dumbledore told them calmly.

"Of course sir. We simply wished to check out Diagon Alley when Severus told us about it. We didn't know about the wizarding world until Severus explained it to us. Well some things," Harry told the man looking over at Severus, who had been silent since Harry had covered his mouth earlier. The expression on Severus's face was something almost bordering on awe, like he had just met Superman or something like that. Harry and Tom were starting to wonder who this man was, and why Severus was reacting the way he was.

"Of course," Dumbledore said in a way that said loud and clear that he didn't really believe them. Harry found himself squirming. That look just wasn't comfortable.

"Then I'll leave you with these letters. I'm sure you should be able to find Diagon Alley and purchase your required school supplies," Yeah, Harry was really hating that look Dumbledore was using. It might not have been bad if Harry actually knew or respected this guy, but the look was horrible to Harry.

With those parting words Dumbledore took his leave from the room, and the three boys relaxed a little, not a lot, but a little. Tom leaned back on his bed (they had been led by the auburn haired man to their room, and they had held the discussion from their beds), and Severus flat out collapsed into his pillow. Harry just scootched back on the bed so his back was against the plain beige wall.

"So, do you think he suspected what we went to the Alley for?" Severus asked after a few minutes of semi-uncomfortable silence.

"The Alley?" Tom asked incredulously.

"Well it's too long to say Diagon Alley all the time, you know what I mean? But do you think he suspected?" Severus answered dismissing Tom's objection.

"I don't know. He's completely unreadable with that stupid twinkle in his eye," Harry said knocking his head lightly against the painted plaster.

"Yeah. But who is he? Or it almost seems as if I should say who will he be?" Tom asked Severus looking very serious, and a bit fed up with the whole time paradox things.

"Well, where I come from he's the Headmaster at Hogwarts, and the Chief of the Wizengamot and the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and he's Order of Merlin First Class. I think I'm missing something or other, but he's done tons of impressive things," Severus told the two Magically ignorant boys.

"I understood maybe one word out of five, but it sounds really impressive and stuff," Harry told Severus with a small smile, "Well let's look through our findings from the Alley."

"Oh, not you two. That's such a stupid nickname," Tom moaned, but he went and grabbed one of the books out of the bag anyway. Severus and Harry each took a book themselves and started looking for spells that would reveal Tom's heritage which wouldn't be too complex for them to do at that particular time.

"You know, a potion would be easier, and if we pick up a few extra ingredients and stuff when we get our school things, we should be able to brew one without too much difficulty," Severus mentioned showing the other two boys the potion he was looking at. Harry didn't think it looked any harder to do than chicken soup, and while that wasn't Harry's specialty he could fix it we enough.

"Yeah, that looks easier than some of these spells. Most of them look more like rituals than anything else," Harry said showing Tom and Severus the ten page long ritual he had been perusing, it involved have to stand naked in the moonlight, on the three-quarters moon while it was waning (not waxing), and spilling a pint of blood on a sacred stone somewhere hidden from Muggles in Ireland.

"Does that say you have to stand naked?" Severus said in a mixture of disgust and fascination.

"Yeah, and Tom would have to spill a pint of blood on a sacred stone, and sacrifice three lambs," Harry added shutting the book.

"That's just ridiculous," Tom said sounding very aloof from the situation, as if they weren't doing it for him.

"Yeah. Potions it is then?" Severus asked ear-marking the page with the potion on it.

"Yes, I think so," Tom said sounding very prim. That set Harry off laughing, which set Severus off laughing, which simply confused the heck out of Tom. But it was all in good fun.

~*~

"So why are we here again?" Tom asked leaning against the wall as Severus and Harry were fitted for robes. Tom had already finished, but was waiting to pay until after the other two boys had their Hogwarts robes.

"Because it's a new shop, and it can't hurt to patronize a new shop. In many cases they exist because there's something wrong with the old one. So Madam Malkin's in a fine choice, even though it's only five years old," Severus told Tom for the third time. Tom still didn't seem to get it, but Harry suspected that something was going to happen to Wizard's Tailoring down the road, and Severus wanted them in the habit of using Madam Malkin's for when it did happen.

"Fine," Tom sighed and leaned back again. It only took another five minutes before they were finished and paid, and on their way out of the store. Tom was still grumbling about not using the established store, and using the newer upstart instead.

Nonetheless the boys stopped next for cauldrons, and got the standard pewter ones, even though Severus tried to get the stainless steel cauldron under the idea that it would withstand higher temperatures. Harry talked him out of it under the fact that it cost more, and it was technically Harry's money, even though he had no problem sharing it with Tom or Severus.

It was when they were getting the potions supplies that something interesting happened.

"The normal Hogwarts kit?" The man in the apothecary asked as the boys came in.

"Yes please, but we need some additional ingredients," Harry told him as Severus went prowling through the store to find what they needed. Tom leaned against a shelf lazily and waited for the other two to get their business done.

"What do you need? Can I help you find it?" The man offered watching Severus warily.

"No, I think Severus can find everything thank you. Do you have the normal Hogwarts kits already put together, or will we need to do that as well?" Harry asked politely. Harry looked so small an innocent in Tom's oversized clothes that the man stopped his wary watching of Harry's much taller friend, and began pulling out the Hogwarts kits the boys would need.

"Harry, are the bottles of murtlap essence up there? I'm not sure if I can fix it myself," Severus asked emerging from among the shelves with his arms full of vials, jars, and paper packages of ingredients, some of which smelled foul.

"Yes, it's here. Do we really need all of that?" Harry asked appraising the pile in Severus' arms. It looked like a lot more ingredients than the book said they needed.

"Well, not right now. But my mom was talented at potions, and these are all things that she would never let her store closet be without," Severus said setting his burden on the counter in front of him carefully.

"So it isn't stuff we necessarily need," Harry stated.

"Well, not right now. But we're going to need it later if we pursue any sort of potions outside of class," Severus stated adamantly.

"Fine, I guess we'll get it all then. But you did get all the stuff we actually need now right?" Harry asked Severus sternly. Severus looked a little sheepish, but he nodded. Harry looked at the man behind the counter and gave him a nod that said rather clearly that he could start tallying up the price now.

"Severus you just like potions don't you?" Tom commented his voice filled with a sneer that the other two boys couldn't see, because their backs were to him.

"Yes I do. It's much more understandable than all that foolish wand waving all the other practices of magic include," Severus told the slightly smaller boy as he turned to look at him.

"Speaking of 'wand waving' when we're done here we're going to have to go get wands. What was that wand shop we passed? Oliver's?" Harry asked as the man behind the counter pulled out three Hogwarts kits and started sorting through the pile Severus had left.

"Ollivander's. They're the best wand-makers in Britain. Some would say they're the best in the world, but others would say that it was Gregorovitch who was the best in the world. It's a matter of opinion," Severus explained.

"I see. Then we'll definitely hit Ollivander's next," Harry told the taller boys calmly.

"That's six galleons four sickles and two knuts," The man behind the counter told Harry as he packed the ingredients into a bag for the boys.

Harry paid and took the bag, then led the other two boys back out into the alley. Harry promptly knocked into a girl who was trying to get into the apothecary, but not paying much attention. The girl was pretty enough, although she looked serious, almost stern. She was a year, maybe two older than the boys, and she had her hair pulled back into a bun, which was working its way out of the hundreds of bobby pins which were supposed to be holding it in place.

"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention," The girl told them looking truly contrite, and a bit flustered.

"It's alright, I didn't even drop my bag," Harry said trying to calm her down; it didn't seem tobe working.

"Oh, good. Oh! But you must be first years. You're Hogwarts age at least. My name is Minerva, and I'm a third year Gryffindor," Minerva told them offering her hand to Harry to shake.

"I'm Harry, I…uh…don't know what a Gryffindor is," Harry told her sheepishly.

"Oh! You're a muggleborn then?" Minerva asked interestedly.

"No, I don't know if there's a word for it, but my dad was a pureblood, and my mom was a muggleborn," Harry told her, "They died when I was really little, and now I'm in an orphanage."

"Oh…I'm sorry," Minerva looked like she had no idea what to say to that, so she continued on a different note, "Gryffindor is one of the four houses of Hogwarts. We're known for bravery and courage."

"And stupidity," Severus added from behind Harry.

"That's a very Slytherin answer. Slytherin is another house. They're known for being cunning and ambitious. But most of them are purebloods. They don't get along with the Gryffindors at all. Well that was a really huge understatement. We hate each other." Minerva explained with a rueful grin, "Then there's Ravenclaw, they're known for being smart and good with books. And Hufflepuff, they're loyal and hard-working."

"Oh, I see. I don't think I fit in with any of the houses," Harry told Minerva a little sadly.

"That's alright, we'll get you where you belong when you get to Hogwarts. Where are you going next for supplies?" Minerva told them with a smile.

"Ollivander's for wands," Tom informed her seriously.

'Oh, I'll come with you. It'll be fun," Minerva offered, "Now what are you two's names?"

"I'm Severus Snape, and my friend here is Tom Riddle,' Severus told her calmly.

"Oh, how do you three know each other?"

"We share a dorm at the orphanage,' Harry told her.

"Oh…" Minerva obviously didn't do well with uncomfortable situations.

"Well off to Ollivander's," Harry said setting off down the road.

"Ollivander's is in the other direction, Harry," Severus told Harry, having not moved a muscle.

"I knew that,' Harry said setting off in the right direction. Minerva was giggling, Severus was chuckling, and Tom was smiling. They all obviously thought Harry's bad sense of direction was hilarious.

~*~

**So I don't think Harry has a bad sense of direction canonically, but I have one, I swear I get lost everywhere (I accidently went to the Language Hall at school when I was supposed to be going to the Science Hall from Art, which is right across the Mall Hall from the Science Hall, while the Language Hall is at the other end of the school. I still have no idea how I managed it).**

**But I'm sure everyone can figure out exactly who Minerva is, although my friend James was lost for awhile when I showed him the sketch I did of how I thought she looked at this time period. I also think that according to canon Minerva is acctually in school after Tom, but I wanted her to be older, so she's older. Plus I thought this fit better because Dippitt leaves not long after Tom graduates, and Dumbledore becomes the headmaster, so I figued Minerva would just tak the position of Transfiguration right off. So my timeline makes more sense. So there!**

**Chapter 4 isn't quite ready, but I felt a little guilty not putting chapter 3 up, because it was done. I do have a number of people reading this story (which dumbfounds me, mostly my stories are read by a very small number of people). But I want to thank everyone who has been reading it. I also want to request that everyone who reviews tells me if I made an error somewhere, so that I can fix it. Also I need to tell everyone that my keyboard is old (well sort of), and a couple of my keys stick, like my F key and my . key. So if my story seems to be missing Fs and .s please tell me!! It drives me nuts and my dad promised me a new keyboard and mouse, but nothing has been done about it.**

**So until I finish chapter 4**

**~*~Elizabeth~*~**


	4. You Failed Elementary School on Purpose?

When they stepped into the dim shop Minerva sat down on one of the chairs against the wall, while the boys stood in front of the counter.

"Ah, new students for Hogwarts," A man said calmly coming out from behind a shelf, "And young Minerva McGonagall, 12 inches oak and pheonix feather, very pliable. A rather inspired creation of mine."

"Yes sir, but I'm just escorting these new first years in," Minerva said with a smile as she touched the right pocket in her skirt.

"Yes, we need our wands," Severus told the man almost bouncing in anticipation.

"Right, well which are your wand arms?" The man asked pulling out three tape measures.

"Right," Harry told him, Severus was right handed as well but Tom was left handed. Ollivander watched for a moment while the tapes took measures of the three boys before steeping back behind the shelves and started pulling boxes down.

"Let's start then," Ollivander told them handing them each a wand. Ollivander snatched the one Harry was holding away quickly, and the one Tom was holding as well. But told Severus that the one he was holding was the right one. Thus Severus got a ten and a half inch Hawthorn and Dragon heartstring wand.

Tom tried three more times before he got a thirteen and a half inch yew wand with a phoenix feather which Ollivander said was right for him. It took an entire hour before Ollivander pulled down an eleven inch holly and phoenix feather wand for Harry and told him I was right.

"Interesting," Ollivander commented as he rang up their wands.

"What's interesting?" Harry asked pulling the pouch of money from his pocket.

"Your wand and Mr. Riddle's are brothers. The feather in their cores came from the very same phoenix, which is very strange. It's truthfully a good thing you two are friends, because your wands could never be forced to fight each other." Ollivander told them sounding quite calm.

"Oh, that's really strange. How often does that happen?" Minerva asked from her seat against the wall where she had been forgotten.

"I think there are three instances in which there have been brother wands used by two different wizards in the same generation. In two of them the two users were connected by magic of some kind, and a very strange effect was caused called _priori incantantum_." Ollivander explained, "That will be six galleons each, a total of 18 galleons or all three."

"What's _priori incantantum_?" Harry asked counting out 18 galleons from his pouch.

"A phenomenon in which two wands are forced to spit back the last spells they cast, in reverse order. That's it then boys, I hope I won't be seeing you any time soon," Ollivander told them as he took the coins from Harry.

"Good-bye, sir," Harry told the man as they left burdened by their new wands.

"You all have your wands, is there anything else you need?" Minerva asked as they left the shop.

"Just our school books," Harry told her pulling his wand out of its box and examining it. It was the same as the one on the table had been, except the one on the table had scratches, nicks, and fingerprints coating the polished wood. This one was band new, with only Harry's fingerprints from holding it a moment ago marring the surface.

"Oh, well the transfiguration book they assign is useless, you should get the _Standard Books of Spells Grade 1_ as well. It's much more useful," Minerva told them starting off towards Flourish and Blotts.

"Oh what's the text book?" Severus asked sounding confused.

"It's _Transfiguration for Beginners_," Minerva said sounding disgusted.

"Oh, I've never heard of it," Severus murmured looking confused. Obviously that wasn't the textbook where he came from.

"Consider yourself lucky then, it's horrible. Wait don't you live in a muggle orphanage?" Minerva asked suddenly clicking with the fact that he wasn't a muggleborn like she assumed.

"Yeah, but my mom was a pureblood witch. I'm not even sure how I ended up in the orphanage," Severus told the older girl calmly.

"Oh, well that makes both more and less sense," Minerva said briskly leading on towards the book store once more.

"Harry, do we have some extra money for books? I saw a very interesting book on the theory behind some potions that I would love to read," Severus asked with an innocent look on his face. Harry sighed and checked his pouch for money, and found they still had a good bit.

"Did something catch your eye as well Tom?" Harry asked glancing over at the taller boy.

"Well yes, there was a book on the rise of the dark arts during the tenth century which looked very interesting," Tom admitted sheepishly.

"We should have enough money for both of those, and that book I saw on dueling practices and rules," Harry informed them as they reached the shop.

"That's all beyond first year stuff," Minerva said sounding slightly in awe of the younger boys, "If you all always do that sort of stuff you could all be cut out for Ravenclaw."

"I'm not that smart," Harry said with a laugh, "In fact I failed every class all through elementary school."

"You did that on purpose though," Severus commented reasonably before he split off to find his potions book. Tom was already winding through shelves and piles of books in search for the illusive history of the dark arts section.

"You failed elementary school on purpose?" Minerva asked with an incredulous look on her face.

"It's a long story, but it was actually better for me to fail than get good grades. I studied so I could fail. It was a little pathetic really," Harry told the girl gathering up three sets of the required school books, and three sets of Minerva's suggested text. Then he went searching for his book while the pile of books almost as tall as he was made his back bend uncomfortably.

"Do you want me to help you carry some of those?" Minerva asked concerned when harry ran into one of the teetering piles of books (which didn't fall over, proving the held-up-by-magic theory).

"Yeah, just grab one or two off the top, I'll be fine," Harry told her allowing Minerva to skim a few books off the top of the pile.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take a few more?" Minerva asked as Harry attempted to grab the book he wanted off the shelf without dropping his pile of books. He failed. Epically.

"I guess that wouldn't hurt," Harry said grabbing the book off the shelf and starting to stack the books back up. Minerva took another three books, leaving her stack half the size of Harry's, which was still as high as his head.

"We should probably find your two friends," Minerva said calmly and harry found himself wondering if Minerva had even bothered to remember their names. Somehow it didn't seem like it.

"Yeah, then they can take some of these books. We already have a ton of stuff, but some of the store keepers shrunk our stuff, and told us it would all go back to normal when we take it out of the bags. You know, since we can't do magic," Harry told Minerva as they made their way slowly through the store looking for the other two boys. They were going slowly because Harry didn't want to drop something again.

"There you are!" Severus said turning a corner and almost knocking into Harry, "I got a little lost looking for you."

"That's alright. Everyone gets a little lost in here," Minerva informed the boy before handing him her entire stack of books and taking a number of books off Harry's pile.

"Really? I would think they'd make the store easier to navigate," Harry said calmly as the three continued on through the store in search of the History of the Dark Arts section, where they assumed they would find Tom.

And they were right in their assumption. Tom was browsing through the books, already holding a rather large tome called _The Rise of the Dark Arts Volume 1: 900 A.D.-1000 A.D._ Looks like there was more than one book that Tom would want.

"You finished?" Harry asked as they came up.

"Yeah," Tom said quietly. Minerva promptly gave Tom her stack of books and took some from both Severus and Harry, so the four of them were carrying piles of books which were roughly congruent in height (And actually manageable).

They quickly followed Minerva to the desk and paid for their books (or rather Harry paid for the books while Severus and Tom sat there looking bored and Minerva perused the latest edition of _Transfiguration Weekly_.

"Hey, why didn't you get any of your school things?" Severus asked Minerva as they were waiting for the man behind the desk to shrink all their books and put them in a bag.

"Oh, I'll get them later today, I just have to get my new books. I'm a third year after all," Minerva said sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Now. I think you three should get pets And at least one of them should be an owl."

"What? Why would we get pets? Are we even allowed to have pets in the orphanage," Harry asked turning to Tom at the third question.

"Yes, but no one keeps one, not after what happened to that rabbit," Tom said with a very scary looking smile. The other three fought the urge to shiver. No one asked what happened to the rabbit.

"Well that's settled we'll get you pets from the Magical Menagerie. Although we might want to stop by Eelops Owl Emporium for an owl. They tend to have more variety in owls," Minerva told them taking the bag of shrunken books (despite the fact that none of them were for her).

"I'll get an owl, but I won't have anyone to write to," Severus said calmly as they made their way down the street. Which promptly confused the other two boys. What did writing have to do with owls?

"Oh, you can always write to me. You know if you ever have questions about the wizarding world, or transfiguration. I'm all thumbs with potions, but I'm the best in my year at transfiguration," Minerva told them puffing her chest out proudly at her skill in transfiguration. Harry found himself smiling over Minerva's attitude. She was the most carefree person he had ever met, and he loved it. He found himself hoping to be in Gryffindor, because then he could hang about with Minerva, and maybe some of the other kids would be a lot like her. Because the houses were based on personalities, right?

~*~

The Magical Menagerie was full of sounds. Any sound an animal makes you could hear it. Harry was even sure he heard a horse whiny, but that couldn't be right. The store was too small or that. Wasn't it?

It was full of smells too, the smell of the animals themselves (not entirely unpleasant, but earthy), and the smell of all the food which was everything from jars of live flies to bags of food that looked like dog food. Most of it wasn't dog food though, there weren't all that many dogs in the magical world.

"So what do you all think you want?" Minerva asked as the boys stepped into the shop their arms laden down with bags. This was the last stop before they went home after all.

"I don't know. I've never been allowed a pet before. My cousin had a parakeet, I don't think I want a bird, it was really annoying," harry told Minerva surveying the shop. There was a wall of cats, and another of Owls. There was an entire aisle full of rats, and somewhere further in they could hear some kind of birds twittering, and dogs were barking somewhere in the back.

"Then we should just look around for while. I'm sure you'll find something," Minerva said with a smile. With that the boys split off, with Minerva following Harry once more. Tom went off down the aisle with the rats and Severus went straight to the owls.

Harry looked around for a moment, then started towards the cats, they couldn't be all that bad. Maybe he'd even like one.

But then again, maybe not. As soon as Harry got close to the cats they all started yowling and hissing. Harry quickly backed away and headed deeper into the store. Minerva was laughing hysterically. Harry gave her a stern look, which was rather amusing due to the fact that Harry was about half her size, but for some reason it did manage to shut her up. Harry stopped in confusion.

"That was a really good stern look. Can you teach me?" Minerva asked eagerly, "no one takes me seriously."

"I don't know," Harry said completely dumbfounded. But he got over it and started back into the store. They passed the rats, but Harry knew he didn't want one of those. Aunt Petunia had been quite strict about rats and mice, she had detested the creatures. It was somehow in his mind that they were dirty, and thieves. Hence, he skipped the rats; the mice and gerbils as well, although the hot pink gerbil did catch Harry's eye for a moment.

After passing the rodents (including some rather interesting white rabbits which were pulling themselves from hats) they came across the snakes. Harry paused, was someone talking? No, there wasn't anybody else nearby, but he could have sworn he heard someone mumbling. No, there it was again, mumbling.

"Stupid people, wouldn't know impressive I it bit them. Bet they'll pass right by, everyone does. I've been here, what three months? How long have I been here?" The last bit was louder than the mumbling had been.

"Almost four months!" Another more feminine voice answered.

"Four? Already? No one has stopped this long before. People think we're dark, don't they?" The mumbler said, no longer mumbling, but holding a conversation with the feminine voice.

"They think we're dark, but what's dark? We're no more dark than they are. Just 'cause one snake's dark don't mean we all are," Another voice answered.

"Shut up all of you! I think the boy understands us," An imperial voice commanded. The voices shut off completely.

"Hey, Minerva did you hear that?" Harry asked uneasily.

"Hear what?" Minerva asked looking uncomfortably at the snakes, they were Slytherin's symbol after all.

"The voices. There was a guy who was mumbling, and a girl, and a rather uneducated one, and one that sounded like a queen," Harry told her uneasily. If she hadn't heard them, who were they?

"No. You know what? I don't like snakes. I'm going to go find the other two, see what they found," Minerva said running away as fast as she could. Harry watched her for a moment until another he heard another voice. It sounded a lot like him.

"Hey, are you going to notice us?" The voice asked sounding very amused, "I've been here almost a year, of course I'll live to be around forty, so it's not that long, but I would rather like to get out of here if you know what I mean."

"Where are you, can I help you leave?" Harry asked looking around feeling a little foolish

"I'm right in front of, well now I'm not, turn to the left, no my left. There, now I'm right in front of you. Top row, it's a little tall for you, but I'm sure you'll be fine," The voice said sounding amused and a little exasperated at Harry. When Harry looked up at the top row (it was only a few inches above his eye level, it wasn't all that bad) he saw a red snake whose scales were edged with gold. It was interesting to say the least.

"You're a snake?" Harry asked looking at it more carefully.

"Of course he's a snake. What did you think you were going to find in the snake section?" A voice asked exasperated from somewhere below the red snake. It was the imperious voice from before. It was a very big snake.

"I don't know. But how come I can understand you?" Harry asked the huge snake on the lower shelf. She raised her head and flicked her tongue at the mesh above her.

"Why can we understand you? Because we're all speaking the same language. Parceltongue of course," The snake told Harry calmly, "I think the youngster above me is the one you want however. He's enough like you that –"

"Hey, the snakes are talking," Tom said barging down the row toting a very reluctant Minerva behind him.

~*~

**Mwhahaha**

**Okay it's out of my system now. I was originally going to continue on this chapter until after they got their pets, but then Tom had to come barging into the conversation, so then I figured there was going to be lots of explaining and confusing and such, so it would wait for another chapter (on pain of death).**

**Thank you everyone who has been reading, especially those who send me reviews. I like reviews, even when they just say 'good chapter' or 'cute story' or something like that. I like the one that tell me why it's good or what's cute about it better, but just two words will make me so much happier. So in case anybody didn't get the hint...Review!!!**

**Yeah, that was all I really wanted to say...**

**~*~Elizabeth~*~**


	5. Do You Want to be Ruaraidh?

"No they're not," Minerva said looking from one boy to the other. She could have sworn Harry had just been talking to those snakes, but she's didn't hear any words. That was just weird.

"Yes they are," Harry told Minerva with a strange look on his ace. Why couldn't Minerva understand, surely it was a magical thing, talking to snakes.

"No, they're hissing," Minerva said nervously refusing to get any closer to the snakes.

"Whatever," Tom said waving his hand as he peered at the snakes walking quickly down the aisle and back down to Harry. When he reached Harry and looked very disappointed, "These snakes don't like me. I guess I'll get a rat after all," Tom slunk away before Harry could say another word. Minerva scurried (yes actually scurried!!) after Tom glancing back only once at Harry before following the taller boys again.

"Yes, well what was I saying? Oh, yes. I think that the annoyance above me is your familiar bond-mate. You have to find your bond-mate when you're young, or else you'll be too set in your ways to find them," The imperial snake said calmly after Tom and Minerva had disappeared around several corners.

"Oh, well what's your name?" Harry asked the red snake above him.

"I don't have one. It's for my bond-mate to name me as he sees fit. Long ago wizards were re-named by their bond-mates, but the tradition is long lost," The red snake told Harry as Harry reached up to pull the small glass tank off the shelf. Harry would have to buy the tank too, although he doubted he would be keeping the snake the tank.

"Oh, well I don't know what I should call you. Give me a bit to think, then I'll tell you. And you can come up with a name for me too, I'm not all that fond of Harry to tell the truth," Harry told the snake as he went looking for the other three.

"Oh, I was thinking you should be 'Orinn'," The small red snake informed Harry sounding incredibly calm.

"OI sort of like the sound of that, maybe I should tell people to call me that,' Harry commented.

"I don't think they will, few people respect bond traditions anymore," The snake told Harry sadly.

"You know, there's a name, of this Irish kid in my old school, I always thought it was cool, I think it was…Ruaraidh," Harry told the snake as they headed towards the owls, assuming that Severus would still be there, "I think he said it had something to do with red, so I was wondering if you wanted to be Ruaraidh?"

"I like it, I think it means Red king. I'm from Ireland," Ruaraidh explained to Harry's confused glance.

"Oh, well that makes sense," Harry said as he rounded a corner and saw Severus standing there looking around completely confused.

"Oh, Harry. Did you hear that hissing just now?" Severus asked noticing Harry standing there.

"Nope, I was just talking to Ruaraidh," Harry told him looking at the empty cage Severus was holding in one hand.

"Oh, is that the snake?" Severus asked looking closer at the small reptile.

"Yep, he's Ruaraidh. According to the really big snake, I think she's a queen, he's my familiar," Harry told the taller boy with a proud smile.

"According to a snake? You can talk to snakes?" Severus asked confused.

"Yeah, can't all magical people?" Harry asked confused.

"No, not by a long shot. Most magical people think the ability to speak to snakes in dark. But then they think snakes are dark too, and that's obviously wrong," Severus told Harry.

"Oh, well that explains why Minerva was confused. Tom and I tried to tell her the snakes were talking, but she just wouldn't believe us," Harry told him as the two boys went in search of Tom and Minerva.

"Tom could understand them too?" Severus asked sounding completely shocked. What were the odds that both of his roommates could speak Parseltongue?

"Yeah, but apparently none of them were his familiar. Did you know that a familiar gives their bond-mate a name?" Harry asked Severus eagerly.

"No, I didn't know that. Then did Ruaraidh give you one?" Severus asked as they walked through the aisles looking for Tom and Minerva.

"Yep, he says it's Orinn," Harry told him proudly.

"I think I like Harry better,' Severus commented as they turned the corner to the aisle of rats. Harry looked so disappointed by the comment, but didn't have time to dwell on it. He didn't have time to dwell on it because Tom was standing in the middle of the aisle with a tiny mouse in a little wire cage in his arms. Not only was it a mouse, it was a white mouse, with little black eyes. It was absolutely adorable, which was not what the two boys would have pegged for Tom. Minerva looked like she wouldn't have pegged adorable to go with Tom either because she was suppressing giggles. A man was standing nearby, and he obviously worked in the shop.

"Excuse me sir, there's an owl I'd like to purchase," Severus told the man coming up and ignoring Tom and his adorable mouse.

"Alright then, come and show me," The man said gesturing for Severus to lead the way. Severus did lead the man and his three companions to the wall of owls and happily pointed out a sleek black owl, which looked like it was far too important to be in the same area as any of those other mediocre owls. Somehow it didn't seem to fit Severus's enthusiastic outlook on the wizarding world. But who knew, maybe Severus needed someone down to earth, even if it was an owl. Isn't that ironic?

Then the four students went to the desk in the back of the store to pay for their new pets, Harry all the while talking to Ruaraidh, which made Minerva twitchy.

"That's ten galleons and seven sickles," The man at the register informed them after providing them with food for their new pets. A box of what looked a lot like dog biscuits was for Severus's new owl, a bag of some kind of foul smelling concoctions of pellets and seeds was for the little white mouse, and a bag of equally foul smelling pellets was for Ruaraidh Harry vowed to never force his new familiar to eat the stuff.

Harry paid and as soon as they left the store opened the glass tank and let Ruaraidh out of it. Ruaraidh promptly slithered around Harry's neck hissing his thanks the whole time. Turns out they didn't get fed very much, while muggles might be scared of a snake because they had venom, wizards were afraid of snakes because they were "dark" note the air quotes. That's why magical snakes are viewed in an even worse light, and guess what? Yeah, Ruaraidh is a magical snake alright. What makes him magical other than the impressively colored scales? Who knows, in fact Ruaraidh doesn't even know.

~*~

"So, I'll see you lot on the train?" Minerva asked as they four of them reached the entrance to muggle London.

"Yeah, I can't wait," Harry told her happily. Ruaraidh made a nodding motion with his head, and Minerva shuddered. Harry didn't notice Minerva's reaction, but Severus and Tom both did. Tom simply tilted his head to one side wondering, after all Minerva had been tagging along behind Harry like a faithful dog most of the day, but Severus gave Minerva a glare that gave a whole new meaning to if looks could kill. Because if looks _could_ kill that glare alone would have left Minerva a smoldering pile of ash.

"We'll see you then," Severus told her coldly. Minerva started at the tone of voice, but just nodded and waved good-bye to the boys.

"It's nice to know we already have a couple friends at school isn't it?" Harry asked as they left into muggle London to find the nearest Underground station.

"I suppose, but I think it would be better to see what houses we'll be in before we start picking friends," Severus told harry calmly. Severus didn't really trust Minerva to be Harry's friend to tell the truth.

"I guess, but I wouldn't mind being in Gryffindor, you know, so I know someone," Harry said sheepishly. Severus looked at the smaller boy and shook his head, why did it suddenly feel as if he was much older than his age? Maybe it was because Harry had suddenly decided to act _his_ age, instead of being the older one.

~*~

September first was an interesting day for sure. First of all Ruaraidh somehow managed to get himself tied into a knot, and none of them could untie it for almost an hour. Then there was the fact that Merlin (an incredible grandiose name for little white mouse) got lost under Harry's bed, but it took them a good hour to find him. Severus' owl, Vert (highly ironic for a _black_ owl), didn't get into any trouble only because he was stuck in his cage, which was very much to his annoyance. They were about to leave (by way of the matron's car) when Tom realized that they had left the powered mandrake root (which was highly costly) in the wardrobe. Therefore they only had ten minutes after they reached the station to get on the train. Problem was, no one ever mentioned where the platform was.

Severus took a minute, but remembered about passing through the barrier, and they managed to catch the train in time, but they had barely gotten onto the train before it lurched off on its way to Hogwarts.

"That was cutting really close," Severus commented as they wandered down the train looking for an empty, or at least almost empty compartment to sit in.

"Well, it wasn't entirely any of our faults. We all had something that happened this morning that delayed us. It would have been really bad if we had left without Merlin, or the powdered mandrake, or if we hadn't untied Ruaraidh," Harry said calmly taking up the position as the most mature of the three. Severus sighed inwardly; this made it so much easier that Harry was the leader again.

"This compartment only has one person in it, maybe we can ask to join them?" Severus suggested a moment later.

"Sure," Harry said before knocking lightly on the door to get the girl's attention. Then he slid the door open.

"Would you mind if we sat here? I don't think there's anywhere else for us to sit," Harry said to the girl, who looked like she was in the middle of something severely girly. She had an array of cosmetics on the seat next to her, and what looked like a selection of contact lenses.

"Oh, no not at all. In fact could you help me?" The girl asked hopefully. She looked to be their age with black hair that fell just past her shoulders. She might have been a second year, but certainly no older than that.

"What do you need?" Harry asked pulling himself into the compartment.

"Which color eyes would look better, blue? Or Turquoise? I'm also considering these red ones…" The girl trailed off looking at the contacts she had just picked up. Tom looked completely confused, how could she change her eye color? Especially since those things looked muggle in origin.

It was then that Tom realized that everything in the muggle world was not the same as it had been when he fell asleep in his orphanage all that time ago. It all changed the same night his two roommates appeared from nowhere, right into the beds. Tom hadn't told the other two boys, but he had been awake when all of the sudden his room was larger and there were two more beds, beds with two boys his age in them, fast asleep. Tom hadn't paid much attention, but he thought things were a little different the next day as he was leading the boys through London to the Underground. Perhaps he should have caught the changes that day, but he was too interested in Severus' apparent fear of heights and being introduced to the Wizarding World.

"I think red would be a little scary. The turquoise would look nice," Harry told the girl completely unphased by the little contacts, they must be from his time period then.

"Hmmm, you may be right," She said looking down at the clear boxes in front of her, "Turquoise it is!" She then proceeded to put them in, and cover her own gray colored eyes. Tom and Severus both looked away squeamishly from the girl sticking little pieces of plastic into her eyes. Didn't that hurt?

"Well, um, my name's Harry Potter, this is Severus Snape and Tom Riddle," Harry introduced them when the girl picked a mirror up from the seat next to her and started to examine her eyes very carefully.

"Oh! My name is Alise. Alise MacBell that is," Alise told them blushing a little, "I'm a first year."

"So why are you doing all this stuff on the train?" Harry asked gesturing to the piles of cosmetics. Harry took a closer look and realized that several of the little boxes were muggle hair dye.

"Oh, my mom doesn't approve of anything muggle. She's a pureblood through and through. Dad's more lenient, because he's a half-blood I suppose. Although he's not really a half-blood, he's more of a three-quarters blood," Alise said looking thoughtful over what her father should be called.

"What in the world is a three-quarters blood?" Severus asked confused over this girl.

"My grandmother on my father's side was a half-blood, because her mother was a muggleborn. But my grandfather was a pureblood, so it leaves my dad at about three-quarters blood. I guess that means I'm a seven-eighths blood," Alise decided after a moment of thought. Honestly who'd ever think of a seven-eighths blood?

"That's cool, I'm a half-blood. My mom was a muggleborn, and my dad was a pureblood," Harry informed the perky seven-eighths blood.

"Oh, that's cool too. My Mom said she'd be really disappointed in me if I was in Gryffindor, because they're a bunch of brash idiots according to her, but I don't think it would be that bad. What about you?" Alise asked her eyes shining energetically. She was probably going to run the three boys down with her energy before they got to school.

"Both my parents were in Gryffindor, so that might be nice. Plus I already know a third year in Gryffindor. But I don't think any of the other houses sound bad at all, so I don't think it will matter much where I am in the long run," Harry told the girl calmly.

"Ooooh, you're so lucky! I couldn't get away with just being so willy nilly about houses like that. What about you two?" Alise asked the other two boys who were both perched rather uncomfortably in their seats.

"My mom was a Slytherin when she was in school, I suppose that wouldn't be bad," Severus said with a light shrug.

"I don't really know much about the houses. I don't think I'd like Hufflepuff or Gryffindor though. Ravenclaw and Slytherin sound more like me," Tom told her with his face a blank mask.

"Well, I guess we'll see when we get there then," Alise said happily before breaking open one of the boxes of hair dye. Tom and Severus led the compartment's fumes, but Harry just cracked open the door and sat next to it as Alise dyed in blue streaks to her hair. Where she had come up with the idea, no one would probably ever know.

~*~

"First years! Will the first years come over here?" A voice called out over the crowds as the students made their way off the train. The voice belonged to a pretty young woman who looked like she would rather be inside somewhere.

"Is that everyone?" She asked as the older students made their way down the platform to get to the school some other way. All that were left were 27 eleven-year-olds clumped together rather pathetically. Some were grouped around their friends, and others were just clinging to the closest living creature, which in a few cases meant their pet. Most of the pets were the ones the school list said were allowed, but there were also snakes, mice, and assorted smaller animals, which had passed the notice of parents and teachers alike.

"Alright then, we'll be going this way," The woman said leading them off. All the students followed, some were confident, and proud, they were probably purebloods and half-bloods for the most part, other students were huddling into their robes as if they didn't want to be noticed, they would be a mixture of muggleborns, half-bloods, and very timid purebloods.

All the students made their way down the winding path, in some places walking three and four across, and in others they walked single file. But when there was a sudden gap in the trees everyone stopped and stared, causing the students behind them to bump into them, but they stopped too as soon as they saw where they were going.

Through a gap in the trees they could see a huge castle resting over a lake easily twice as wide as the castle was tall at its widest point. In other places the lake was thin enough that one could talk to someone on the other side without raising their voices too much. On one side the lake butted up against the cliff the castle stood on, and in another place it was edged by the large grassy field that seemed to surround most sides of the castle. They could see that the trees they were standing in thinned out, and became field, but on the other side of the castle was a huge forest, which looked far more menacing than the copse of trees they were in.

Before very long the woman was shooing the students back into the trees, where they climbed down a small hill. At the end of the hill was a dock with small boats bumping against the wood with the movements of the water.

"Four to a boat please students, no more than four to a boat!" The woman called as the students eagerly got into the boats. Some of the previously timid students had withdrawn from their robes and were watching the approaching castle with a hunger in their eyes. Some it was a hunger to learn , and for others it was a hunger to prove themselves. But all of them were looking forward to whatever their lives held at the end of this boat ride.

~*~

**For those who have read a lot of my stories and have seen my evolution o styles you might notice that I went into a lot more detail in describing Hogwarts than I normally would go into. This is because Hogwarts as a building and as an instituton was so important to all three of the boys the first time around, and I really want to emphasize what's so great about Hogwarts. But also because we're sort of seeing this story through the eyes of a couple of 'lost boys' who find home at Hogwarts Which was always the plan for this story. Of course Harry, Tom, and Severus being who they are aren't going to stay out of trouble. They have a strange mixture of cunning, bravery, intelligence, curiosity, andambition between them. Those are all traits that are going to lead them into trouble.**

**Also a couple of people have mentioned things with the muggle tech not being on par with the 1930's, well I begin to explain it in this chapter. For that I needed to give a little from Tom's point of view, so I also revelealed that he had known there was something strange about the other two boys from the first moment. I had always planned that Tom saw them show up, but at first Severus and Harry were going to know he knew, because they were awake when they showed up. I changed it because it gave Tom a secret, which I think was very Tom Riddle-ish not to reveal.**

**I know I got a little melodramatic in that last chapter, but I always felt that Hogwarts was the perfect place for melodramatics.**

**Well I encourage everyone to send me a review telling me what you thought. Any suggestions will be considered, and some will be used (Ma Soeur your reference is coming I promise).**

**Oh, and if anyone was wondering Alise's line about 'seventh-eighths blood' was something I sort of do already...Of course I wander around saying I'm a little over a quarter German (my grandather was fully German, and there's some mixed in from other directions, so that makes me a little over a quarter). Well that's it for today, my Author's Notes are getting longer...**

**~*~Elizabeth~*~**


	6. Don't See Many of Those Do We?

"Here are the first years," The woman said throwing a look back at the new first years. Dumbledore had been waiting when the woman led the new students into the school after crossing the Black Lake.

"Thank you Abelinda, dear," Dumbledore said calmly. The woman (Abelinda?) stalked through the doors behind Dumbledore and Harry caught a glimpse of students and light and something glittering before the door snapped shut behind her.

"Now, My name is Albus Dumbledore. I'm the Transfiguration teacher, and Deputy Headmaster at the school. In a few minutes we'll get you sorted into your houses, but first I'll tell you what they are.

"There are four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Gryffindor is known for bravery, Ravenclaw for intelligence, Hufflepuff for loyalty, and Slytherin for cunning. Whichever house you're sorted into they become your family for the ten months that you reside within the school. You're awarded house points for your achievements and you lose points for misdemeanors. As that is all I'll request you wait here, and I'll come get you when we're ready to sort you," Dumbledore explained calmly before slipping through the huge doors, allowing the first years another glimpse of a brightly lit room, and a snippet of happy sounds (talking and laughing).

"How do they sort us?" Harry asked Severus who was on his right side.

"The Sorting Hat my mother told me. We simply put it on and it will find out where we belong. It sings before each sorting ceremony, apparently it's a different song each year," Severus explained staring at the doors longingly. He obviously wanted to find out where he belonged. Suddenly Harry was hoping he'd be in whatever house the other two boys were in. He didn't want to be separated from his new roommates (maybe even friends).

Harry joined Severus in staring at the door, although he looked far more worried about what might happen than Severus was. Tom was looking around seeming vaguely curious about the 23 first year students he hadn't spoken to. There was a boy looking about like a horse that was about to bolt, and a girl who looked like she was asleep standing up. Another boy looked as if he had forgotten something, and couldn't quite figure out what it was he had forgotten, the girl next to him looked bored with the proceedings, and another girl who looked like her mirror reflection was playing cat's cradle with another girl.

"Come in now," Dumbledore requested opening the door wide. The students filed in cautiously. Some went more cautiously than others, but all of them with a certain amount of trepidation. Harry, Severus, and Tom found themselves behind the mirror-image twins, and the girl who one of them had been playing cat's cradle with. All three had brown hair, although the twins were a couple of shades lighter than the third girl.

They all lined up between two tables. To their right were students with gold and black ties, and to their left students with blue and silver ties. Farther to their right were the students with red and gold, and against the left wall was the table with silver and green ties. Some of the students looked completely bored with the fact that the Sorting Ceremony was about to begin, and others watched the smaller students avidly.

Dumbledore placed the patched and worn hat on a three-legged stool that needed replacing and stepped back. More than half the first years gasped when a rip near the brim of the hat opened and the hat started singing.

_All the years of Hogwarts,_

_Must I sort._

_For I'm the Sorting Hat!_

_In houses four I'll sort you_

_By who you really are._

_Perhaps in Gryffindor_

_For daring and Bravery true_

_Maybe Ravenclaw_

_For the intelligence in you_

_Or it could be Hufflepuff_

_The house of loyalty_

_Or yet Slytherin_

_For those ambitious_

_Now you'll try me on_

_I'll see your mind_

_And we'll put you where_

_You ought to be!_

The entire Great Hall thundered with applause for the Sorting Hat's song, even though Tom was rather of the opinion that it wasn't a very good song anyway. Harry however was simply amazed that a hat was singing and didn't think past that marvel, Severus of course had been expecting the hat and didn't feel anything towards it. It was a at after all, even if it was a hat that could think for itself.

"When I call your name you'll come up and try that hat on," Dumbledore told the first years (some of which were still stunned by a singing hat).

"Amber, James" was the first on the list. He was a medium sized boy with sandy hair, and he strode up to the hat as if he owned the castle. Only a moment after the hat was placed on his head the hat called "GRYFFINDOR," and James Amber made his way to the Gryffindor table to ringing applause.

"Herrington, Patricia" went to "SLYTHERIN"

The mirror-twins "Higgins, Natalie-Marie" and "Higgins, Jade-Anne" both went to "GRYFFINDOR".

"Knott, Theodore"

"SLYTHERIN"

"Parkinson, Patrick"

"SLYTHERIN"

"MacBell , Alise" was called and Harry watched eagerly as his new friend went to be sorted. After several moments during which it looked like Alise was arguing with the hat it called "SLYTHERIN!"

"Moore, Margaret"

"SLYTHERIN"

"Newsey, Maria"

"RAVENCLAW"

"Potter, Harry"

Harry walked up to the stool and sat down gingerly, he didn't like the way that stool looked at all. Dumbledore set the hat of his head and it promptly fell down over his ears and would have covered his eyes, but his glasses stopped it.

"So, a Time-Traveler? We don't see many of those do we?" A voice asked right in Harry's ear. He flinched, then he realized it was the hat itself talking to him, "But we'll sort you nonetheless. You're brave, oh my very brave, a good brain too, loyal to those you believe in, and ambitious. You could be in any of the houses. But let's see, Slytherin would put you well, you'll make friends there, no doubt, but perhaps Gryffindor is the better house. You know people there. You're parents will be there. No…I think I know, GRYFFINDOR!" The last word was called out to the entire room. Harry gratefully made his way over to his new house. Minerva patted him on the back looking nervous when he sat down next to her.

"Riddle, Tom" was the next on the list and he approached the hat looking very uncomfortable. He shuddered lightly as the hat was placed on his head and clenched his eyes shut when the hat spoke.

"Oh, very ambitious, not at all trusting, you have a share of secrets. Cunning and Sly, well you're perfect for SLYTHERIN!" The last word was called aloud and Tom went and sat next to Alise looking across the hall to where Harry was smiling at him and giving him a thumbs up.

"Snape, Severus"

"Oh, my what a mind! Quite brilliant if you put your mind to it, but cunning…Hmmm. I think you'll be best in RAVENCLAW!"

**This chapter is a little short, but I really wanted to leave it there, because that's sort of my surprise for the sorting. Just so everyone knows putting Severus in Ravenclaw was always the plan, because I think that if Severus has a hope for the future he would be too smart to be Slytherin.**

**So I think we should ban me from writing Sorting Hat songs, I'm really bad at them. But I couldn't just rip one off the books, or use the one I used for Lemonade...Or you know, someome should volunteer to write the stupid songs for me, so I can spare everyone's eyes. It would be for the good of all mankind! No takers? No, I didn't think so.**

**So that's it for this chapter, sorry about the shortness, but the school year's almost over, and I can get more writing done then.**

**~*~Elizabeth~*~**


	7. Halloweens Were Cursed for Me

The feast passed pretty uneventfully. The speech was boring, the food was good, there was a new Charms teacher. You know the normal start of term sort of stuff. Harry wasn't impressed. Sure he was impressed with the food appearing out of nowhere, and the ceiling was wicked cool. But really the rest of it wasn't all the great. Well until the end when a note showed up next to his plate.

_Harry,_

_Congrats on being sorted, well wherever you are. I don't know, but I was a Gryffindor. The hat wanted to put me in Slytherin though. I don't really exist anymore, so I can't pay attention to what is going on with you. But whatever, it doesn't matter that much._

_I hope you'll make some friends other than Tom and Severus, having a couple good friends is always good, but I don't doubt they're in Slytherin. If you are too, then good for you._

_Well, that's all I really have to say right now. I've left other notes where you may or may not find them depending on how different you are than me. The house-elves have a couple of notes from me to you, you'll get them as time passes. _

_Oh, Yeah, I don't think I told you how to hide the Marauder's Map in the bank (if you haven't been there yet, I suggest you do so), so I'll tell you, it's "Mischief Managed." Blame the phrase on Padfoot, I'm pretty sure he came up with them._

_Harry Potter_

After reading the note Harry tucked it in his pocket to show his two friends. No one else really needed to know about the whole 'Harry-and-Severus-are-from-the-future' bit. It would just confuse them.

That night Harry pulled out the Marauder's Map, tapped it with his wand and said "Mischief Managed" the parchment wiped clean, and Harry was left looking at a battered piece of seemingly blank parchment. Harry smiled in satisfaction and tucked the parchment under his pillow.

The next morning Harry was awoken by his dorm mates, notably James Amber, who took a wicked pleasure in jumping onto Harry's bed while he was trying to sleep. James was tall for his age, and rather skinny, with bright red hair and dull greenish-gray eyes. The other two boys were a short, stocky, and dark haired boy named George Peters, and an average heighted boy with light brown hair and muddy green eyes named Michael Jones. Michael seemed the more reasonable of the three. Or at least it might be possible to reason with him. James was simply so full of energy anything you tried to tell him got lost halfway from his ear to his brain. George on the other hand was simply dogmatic, on everything. He was stubborn to a complete fault, and completely unreasonable. Michael at least would listen to what someone said before responding.

They made their way down to the Great Hall (getting lost twice because George was insisting they had to go one way while Harry insisted they needed to go the other way, so James and Michael would choose one and start walking). And when they got there they were joined by two of the first year girls (the Higginson twins) and Minerva. The Higginson twins found extreme pleasure in picking one of the boys to hang onto. The Right handed one (Jade-Anne) decided to hang onto Harry while Harry tried to convince George that there was such a thing as invisibility cloaks (turns out George is muggleborn, and isn't fully convinced that magic exists).

Harry was sure he was in for a rough seven years sharing a room with these three.

Severus' morning was much calmer. He woke before any of his roommates and managed to find his way down to the Great Hall alone for breakfast. He ate while he quietly perused a potions book which had the potion they were going to brew for Tom. His dorm mates joined him sleepily and pulled out their own books.

There were only two other boys in Ravenclaw. There was Richard Morrison who looked to like Charms over the other subjects. Or at least that was what he talked about at the feast the night before and the book he was reading was the Charms textbook. And then there Tancredo Lovegood, who didn't seem to be completely there. He was reading a muggle book about conspiracy theories after all.

The Ravenclaw table became much louder when a bright-eyed brown haired girl came rushing into the Great Hall dragging one of her dorm mates with her. The bright-eyed girl was Trancredo's younger half-sister (she was born two months after Tancredo, which caused a huge scandal) Chiara, the girl being dragged along was Maria Newsy, a plain looking girl with dirty blond hair and brown eyes.

Tom's wake-up call was somewhere in between his two friends'. One of his roommates woke him up, but gently with just the words 'Wake-up Riddle.' Much simpler.

Tom's dorm mates were Theodore Knott, who had a dark and intimidating presence. There was also Alexander Black, the younger brother of a rather infamous presence in the school, Alex was pale and light like he would break. So was Abraxas Malfoy, who looked like a porcelain doll. The last Slytherin boy was big and strong and stupid looking, he rather reminded Tom of a gorilla. His name was George Goyle.

The lot of them went to breakfast together; they had to show some Slytherin solidaritary after all. When they came in the Ravenclaw table was mostly full, and Tom spotted his friend being practically mobbed by a brown haired girl much to Severus' apparent discomfort. At the Gryffindor table Tom spotted Harry trying to talk to one of his fellow Gryffindor first year boys, but he seemed to be dismissing his comments out of hand. One of the pretty twins was hanging onto his right arm, and Harry was having trouble eating.

Altogether it looked like Tom got the best bet in room mates.

Classes were interesting to all three boys. Severus was particularly fascinated by potions classes, and Harry paid rapt attention to every single Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Tom was one of perhaps a dozen students in the school who stayed awake through every History of Magic lesson. He was fascinated by it. Magic was such an old and interesting subject. Magic was everything special and everything different. Even the Goblin Wars were interesting in the way they affected the use of magic in their time period. Professor Binns didn't of course teach anything interesting, he simply droned on boringly in every class period. Tom learned everything studying for homework.

Time passed peacefully, and swiftly at Hogwarts, and before they knew it, it was the end of October and time for the legendary Halloween feast. Harry in particular was looking forward to it. He had heard all kinds of great things about how much food and candy would be present from the other Gryffindors. In fact the entire Gryffindor house was in a frenzy over the entire idea of the Halloween feast. The Ravenclaws and Slytherins tended to be a bit more sedate over the whole thing, but anyone paying any kind of attention would notice the underlying hum of excitement over the feast. Everyone in the school was fond of it.

After classes Harry met up with Severus and Tom in the Entrance hall. All three boys had left their bags in their dorms, and Severus took the longest to get to the Entrance hall. His dorms were the farthest from the entrance after all.

"How have you been? It's been awhile since we've talked. You paired with Newsey in Charms the last few classes," Harry asked Severus as he joined them.

"Oh, Maria was having trouble with _Wingardium Leviosa_. I was trying to help her. Her feathers kept doing odd things. One of them turned a rather ugly orange, and another started singing opera, if you'll recall," Severus reminded Harry. Harry couldn't help but laugh at the reminder if the opera singing feather. It had only been this morning.

"Her feather was singing opera? Was singing well?" Tom asked sounding completely serious. But that was the sort of person Tom was. He was going to make jokes with a completely straight face.

"Yes, actually. If I recall it was bass," Severus responded sounding equally serious. The three of them looked at each other for a moment before they started laughing. A few passing second years looked at them oddly, but they were allowed to be friends, and have a bit of a laugh. Even if one of them was a Slytherin, and another a Gryffindor.

The feast was every bit as legendary as everyone had been saying. The pumpkins looked like they had been engored, and they could have fit both Goyles, their cousin Crabbe, plus the Blacks and Malfoy, as well as Tom, Severus, and Harry, they would probably still have room. There were little squeaking bats fluttering around the ceiling, the real things, not illusions, and candles floated from the ceiling and around all six pumpkins. Then there were piles of sweets, and overflowing bowls of candy, and pumpkin pie, not to mention ham and turkey and steak and roast, and just about every type of potato you could think of. Mound of squashes prepared any number of ways, and every type of autumn food you could think of helped to make the tables groan under the strain of all that food.

But the best part for Harry was another note. He had been sitting at the table trying to convince George that Halloween was not a pagan holiday (he wasn't getting anywhere with it) when a note appeared beside his plate. Harry looked at George who was going on about how devil worshippers came out of Halloween, James was stuffing himself full of sweets (no one in Gryffindor tower was going to get any sleep) and Michael was being terrorized by the twins. Harry slipped the note in his pocket and looked for his two friends from the other houses. Severus was being beset by Chiara once more, and Tom was have a calm discussion with the two delicate looking first years.

Harry stood up and slipped out of the hall managing to get both Severus' and Tom's attention on the way out (no easy feat). The two boys hadn't been happy when Harry told them about the last note almost two weeks after he received it. They had insisted that when the next note showed up he grab hold of both of immediately so they could read it together.

"So, what is it?" Tom asked a little testily. He had been having a very enlightening conversation about Wizarding Politics.

"I got another note," Harry replied ignoring Tom's annoyance, it wasn't important anyway. He'd get over it as soon as he heard about the note, Harry was sure.

"Well, read it," Severus urged looking excited.

"Alright," Harry said and pulled the note from his pocket. It wasn't much different in length, but in a few places it seemed Harry's older self ad paused unsure of what to say. There were small blotts of in at the edges of the page, and his lines dipped in a few places. The writing was as untidy as the others, but it seemed to have been written in less haste, and with more thought than the others.

"_Harry,_

_Happy Halloween. I'd love to say that Halloweens had been my favorite holiday or some such nonsense, but Halloweens are in fact my least favorite holiday. Except perhaps my birthday._

_I'll tell you now that your parents did not die in a car crash. They were murdered by Voldemort, on October 31, 1981. You can't of course visit their graves in this time, but you can remember them today. I'm sure Severus will join you. He saw Lily a few times after all._

_Halloweens were cursed for me. First year there was the troll, then in second there was the deathday party (never attend one if you can get out of it)and the re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets…I'm not sure what else might have happened on Halloween at the moment, but don't doubt it's a cursed day. Walk softly and keep you head down on Halloweens, they rather hate Harry Potter. I also suggest being careful at the end of term each year. That's cursed too. I'll explain it later._

_Well enjoy your holiday if fate allows,_

_Harry Potter"_

_**So this chapter took a rather long time, and I'm sorry about that. I wasn't sure exactly how i wanted to start it. I meant to make a couple of jokes for my sister in this one, but I ended up leaving them out, sorry about that. Everyone is welcome to suggest a joke or a scene, and if it fits, I'll put it in somewhere. **_

**_Thank you everyone who reviewed, and favorited, and subscirbed to this story, even though it has been a long time between chapters. _**

**_I ended up starting and ending this chapter with notes from Harry, and a skipped a lot of time, because nothing very important happened during that time. I added little descriptions of the boys' dorm mates, because I felt we needed to know who they had to deal with for the next seven years. But you'll notice that while I have your stereotypical types that appear in a lot of stories I also have George. Who I sort of love. Originally he was going to be just a typical stubborn Gryfindor, but I went a little far with it. I'll be making jokes with him later. I'm very fond of my female characters as well, the twins, Alise, Minerva, Maria, and Chiara will continue to make little appearances throughout this story._**

**_Well that's all I really have to say about this chapter._**

**_Till next time,_**

**_~*~Elizabeth~*~_**


	8. Pickles

Severus and Tom stared at Harry or a moment before Severus leaped forward and pulled the note from Harry's fingers. He read it and in a slight shock passed it over to Tom. Tom read it calmly and handed it back to Harry.

"What do you think? Do you think something is going to happen this Halloween?" Harry asked looking around nervously as if expecting a troll or something similarly vicious to come ambling down the stairs.

"That's not important," Severus said brushing Harry's concern aside. Harry bristled and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Severus continued, "No, what interests me is this mention of the Chamber of Secrets. I was reading a couple weeks ago and I came across a legend about it. Supposedly only Slytherin's heir can open it, and it has some kind of monster in it."

"I wonder who Slytherin's heir is," Harry said aloud.

"Wouldn't be cool to be Slytherin's heir?" Tom said with a rather ominous looking grin. Severus and Harry exchanged looks past Tom, and came to a silent agreement. They better brew that potion soon. Tom was going to start doing ridiculous amounts of research over who he was if they didn't. And if he found out something he didn't like…Well, there wasn't any telling what he might do.

"Oi, Potter!" A voice called from the door into the Great Hall. It was one of the second year Gryffindor boys. He was a rather sturdily built boy, with lots of muscle, and a good bit of fat. He was a cousin of the Goyles and Crabbes, although more distant. He looked it too; all the Goyles and Crabbes were huge.

"Yes?"

"Can you come get your dormmates? I'm scared Amber might knock somebody's head off," The boy asked looking back into the Hall.

"Yeah, just a minute," Harry said before turning to his friends, "I'll go deal with them, you guys know what Amber's like." The other two boys nodded and Harry rushed back into the Hall.

"You know, I sort of pity Harry," Severus commented to Tom as they watched Harry wrestle James Amber off the table where he was dancing rather enthusiastically.

"I do too, but you know, he wanted to be a Gryffindor," Tom replied as Harry was joined by his other two dormmates in the effort to stop Amber.

"I suppose you're right. But I worry about him. He's a parselmouth, like you. That's a very Slytherin trait, and you know how Gryffindors are about Slytherins," Severus said worriedly.

"We'll back him up if it comes to that. But he seems to be on good terms with his house. It might never come to that," Tom said seriously just as James Amber fell off the table and right onto Harry. The entire house was laughing good naturedly as a couple second and third years helped the first year boys restrain James.

"I think it will, but we can hope I suppose," Severus replied before the two boys went back to their own houses. Severus was set upon by Chiara (who seemed to have a crush on him or something) and Tom was sedately welcomed back to the group.

"Come on James," Harry groaned as James made another attempt to run off. George and Michael blocked him, but Harry's arms felt like they were going to fall off.

"Pickles," James proclaimed happily. The other three boys just kept hauling him up the stairs. They wanted to get back to the dormitory before James started throwing up. He hadn't had a single bite of real food since lunch. All that was in his system was candy and pumpkin juice. He was going to be loving the toilet by morning.

"Yes, yes, pickles," Michael muttered stepping over a trick step.

"What's that?" George asked as they passed through the seventh floor corridor. There was a door that had never been there before. It wasn't all that unusual at Hogwarts, walls were always pretending to be doors, and doors pretending to be walls. Then there were the doors that locked themselves and wouldn't open unless you asked them right. Several of them insisted on being asked in French, and three you needed to ask in German, then there was the door that only opened if you insulted it…Well the list goes on.

"It's a door," Michael said sarcastically. Harry however had dropped James' arm and was investigating the new door. He had passed through this hall the day before and the door hadn't been there he was sure, but the at the same time the door looked old and battered, as if it had been there as long, or even longer than the rest of Hogwarts.

So Harry tried the knob and the door swung open without a sound. George and Michael crowded in against Harry to try and get a look at the room. They completely forgot about James who promptly sat on the ground and started singing "Hakuna Matata."

The room was decorated with a single Gryffindor banner against one wall. But more impressively there were four beds and a bathroom, and a stock of potions in a cabinet on one wall. The three more curious boys exchanged glances, grabbed James, and rushed into the room.

Among the potions was one to cure sugar-rush, and another to heal a sore stomach, and yet another called "sobriety Solution." The three semi-sane boys promptly shoved all three down James' throat. James' came down off his high fairly quickly and even had the decency to seem slightly embarrassed at his behavior. Only slightly.

As it was a Friday and there were no classes the next day the boys decided to just sleep in that room, rather than trek up to the Gryffindor Dorms. Thus it was that Michael, George, and James were in the room when a note fluttered down from the ceiling and landed on Harry's lap.

"What's that?" James asked eagerly. Just because he wasn't on a sugar-high didn't mean he was any less hyper than normal.

"It's a note," Harry said glancing at it. Sure enough, it was the same scrawling handwriting as the other ones. And Harry had no intention of sharing it with his dormmates. For all that the other three boys were nice enough when they weren't being strange, Harry didn't want to share the fact he was from some undefined future time where everything was different.

"What's it for?" George asked suddenly. The other three boys all stared at George as if he had suddenly grown an extra head. George was asking instead of asserting? Surely the world was ending.

"It's for me," Harry said looking anywhere but the three boys.

"Who's it from?" Michael asked rather abruptly. Michael was fairly soft-spoken, and he didn't tend to push anyone to do anything so the stares the other three boys gave him were almost identical to the ones they had given George a moment ago.

"I…I don't want to talk about it," Harry muttered before getting up and rushing out of the room. He continued rushing through halls until he realized he was completely lost, and he didn't have the map, _and_ it was past curfew. He was going to be in huge trouble if anyone caught him.

So Harry, being Harry, slipped through the closest door he could, and found himself in an old classroom, that looked as if it hadn't been used since the founders' time. There was a very old table sitting in the middle of the room and several chairs had been placed upside down on top of the table, as if someone had just been cleaning the room. But the floor and all the furniture was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. There was one huge window taking up most of one of the walls of the room, but it was as covered with grime as everything else. On one of the other walls was a door that looked half gone, and Harry crossed the room to that door.

Pushing the door open Harry paused, he really hadn't expected what he saw. The second room was much bigger than the first, and every wall was covered in bookshelves. In the middle of the room there were rows of bookshelves. There were several tables with chairs at them, and the layer of dust in this room was much thinner than in the room before it. In fact the room looked a lot like the library, but it was smaller. Sort of.

It was smaller going by perimeter of the room, but the room was taller than the Hogwarts library. It looked like the room took up four floors straight up and down. All of them had books lining the walls, and the upper floors had random pathways across the room which were also full of book.

Normally Harry wouldn't have been all that impressed with a room full of books, because Harry didn't really have all that much interest in books. But this room was just impressive, and it looked as if there were more books in this room than in the Hogwarts library, which was supposed to be one of the more comprehensive libraries in Great Britain. Plus he knew Severus would appreciate it. He was really showing his Ravenclaw side lately. Tom and Harry had trouble pulling him out of the library and none of the Ravenclaws were about to help, as most of them were there too.

Harry started off to look at the books when he found another note. Three notes in one day? What was the likelihood of that? Maybe this is what his older self had meant when he said Halloweens were cursed. All the luck in the world seemed to be running on overtime.

But this note wasn't from his older self. In fact it wasn't a handwriting Harry recognized, and it was wasn't addressed to him. There wasn't a signature either. In fact it looked like someone had forgotten something they had written in here one day and never come back to find it.

_Time Travel- A force driving people through the fourth dimension._

_If time travel is a force, then is it that simply to achieve? I've been working on it, and I think I can trap the time magic from several temporal spells into sand. If so, I think I can make an hourglass that will push you through time as you manipulate it._

_But the method seems flawed. I don't think the sand would hold its power for long. They would die far too quickly. But if I don't bind the temporal power into something, it would been too strong and uncontrollable._

_If a very strong witch is the power controllable?_

_No, according to my calculations there isn't anyone that powerful anymore. Not since Professor Slytherin left the school._

_Would a child in his line be powerful enough?_

_Would the child want to time-travel?_

It was a brainstorming sheet, someone ordering their thoughts, about time travel. Harry tucked that note into his pocket as well and went looking through the books near the note, and surely enough there was one of temporal spells. It was the least dusty of those on that shelf, so it was handled more recently than any of the others, but at the same time it was still a decent coat of dust.

Harry spent another hour looking for another door out of the room in hopes of finding a door that let out in a place Harry could find his way back to the Dorm from. Then he found another door and he was distracted from trying to find his way back.

Because through this door was a room set up for sparring, fencing, archery, and who knew what else, but there wasn't another door out. So Harry spent twenty minutes or so looking through the room before leaving again to find a way out. Because by now he had forgotten where the original room had been.

Another twenty minutes of wondering brought Harry to a staircase going downwards. As Harry had assumed this was the first floor of this room he was surprised. But going down the stairs didn't help any. The room under the Book Room (as Harry had named it in all his inventiveness) was set up as a potions lab. While Severus would have been ecstatic about the room, Harry wasn't impressed. Potions was likely his worst subject, but not only that but there wasn't another way out of that room either.

So Harry went back up the stairs and continued to wander. The next thing he found was a set of stairs upwards. Harry figured there might be more rooms up there, because it didn't seem as I he was going to find anything on the floor he was on. But exploring the second level didn't get him anywhere either.

There was only one door on that floor, and it led into a glass-roofed room full of dead plants. That room was as big as the sparring and potions rooms combined, but it still wasn't anything to impress Harry.

But the third floor wasn't any help either. The third floor had seven doors, but they all led into study rooms, and none of them had a second door out. The fourth floor was set up in the exact same fashion. So Harry found himself going back down to the first floor to finish his circuit of the room.

So it came to be that the last door he tried in the Book Room was the one that led out into the Charms corridor. The door was hidden behind a tall picture of two men and two women posing and looking annoyed at being opened at that time of night. Or really by that time it was early morning.

"Is there a password in?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"Of course, but it hasn't been changed in three hundred years. So, I'll allow you to choose one," One of the men told him. This man had brown-ish blond hair and light brown eyes. He was slightly muscle-bound, but mostly he was just a little bulkier than the other man who was stick thin, with black hair streaked with gray.

"Umm, how about Book Room?" Harry suggested nervously.

"No, that's far too uninventive," One of the women replied. She had thick dark brown hair which was pulled back into a braid, and her eyes were a fetching blue.

"Umm…Ruaraidh?" Harry asked flinching slightly.

"And what in the world is that?" The thinner man asked with a sneer that seemed oddly familiar…Oh, it was the one that all the Slytherins seemed to be taught sometime in their first year.

"My familiar's name," Harry replied timidly.

"Oh? And what's your bond-name then?" The second woman asked. She was a little plump, but she looked kind and had yellow-blond hair.

"Orinn, but no one will call me it. Everyone just calls me Harry. But Ruaraidh insists that it's to be expected," Harry replied feeling a little more confident.

"Well, that password is too personal. Can't you come up with a magical term or something?" The dark-haired woman asked impatiently.

"Um…_expecto patronum_," Harry suggested feeling timid again. The dark-haired woman and the thin man intimidated Harry greatly, and the muscle-bound man only slightly less.

"What year are you in? That's at seventh year level," The dark haired woman asked furrowing her brow.

"I'm a first year, but I really like Defense Against the Dark Arts. I've been reading ahead a little," Harry admitted reluctantly.

"Far ahead then!" The blond woman commented happily.

"That password if acceptable," The thin man said cutting his two female companions off, "Now shouldn't you be in bed by now?"

Harry nodded and scurried off for the Gryffindor Common Room. He was going to have to tell Severus and Tom about the room in the morning.

**I rather enjoyed writing this chapter. I liked the idea of the Book Room, but no points to anyone who can guess who was in the portrait or what the purpose of the Book Room is. I thought I made it rather obvious truthfully.**

**Sorry about the REALLY late update and everything, but I only have two weeks til school stars again and I haven't finished my summer homework, plus I got a job, plus I have to do College Applications, plus I'm lazy. So life just sort of got in my way on this one. But I hope you all like it anyway.**

**There are an awful lot of people subscribed to my story, and it makes me very happy to tell the truth. So thank you everyone who has subscribed, favorited, or reviewed my story. The longer, or more helpful reviews all got replies, but the shorter "good story"s and such just got a smile, so your thanks is here.**

**Also, I would like to point out that I rather like Ravenclaw house, And the colors associated with said house. So I'm apologizing in advance if in the future I go off on a tangent on Ravenclaw or something.**

**Well that's everything. Thank you for reading.**


	9. No, I Don't Know Who!

"You did what?" Severus asked the next morning as the three boys sat in the library.

"I found a four-story room full of books," Harry repeated as if Severus was missing a few brain cells.

"Yes, but I'm more interested in the note you said you found in that room. Have you read it yet?" Tom asked eagerly.

"No, I have it here in my pocket though," Harry said pulling the crinkled page out of his pocket.

"Well, read it," Severus said impatiently.

"_Harry,_

_I suppose you've found the Room of Requirement then. This has always been one of my favorite rooms in Hogwarts, and I'm glad you found it, although I'm a bit curious as to why you might need the room. The first time I needed it was to host an illegal defense club. I hope you're having as much fun with it as we all did._

_Also, if you ever need to hide something this room is perfect. In fact I think a couple centuries' worth of students have been hiding things here. Too bad you won't find my old potions book, but it's probably best you don't. There were a few dark spells written in the margins, and I would really hate to have you become a dark wizard since I'm trying to stop the rise of a dark wizard by sending you off._

_In fact, it's likely that just by you being there events won't happen as they originally did._

_Well, that's everything,_

_Harry"_

"He's trying to stop the rise of a dark wizard?" Severus asked aloud after several moments of silence.

"Do you think it's that Voldemort guy who was in the book? I mean he was a big bad dark wizard," Harry asked looking at his two friends.

"No, I don't think so. I mean the book said that the future you had already beaten You-Know-Who," Severus said after shuddering a bit when Harry said 'Voldemort.'

"No, I don't know who," Tom snapped annoyed, "He can't be that scary that you won't even say his name."

"No, you just don't say his name. It's not right," Severus argued firmly. Harry rolled his eyes at his roommates tucked the note back into his pocket.

"Do you two want to see the Book Room?" Harry asked after watching the two argue for a few minutes.

"Of course," Severus said as if Harry was insane for even suggesting Severus might not want to, "You said there was a pretty big potions lab didn't you?"

Tom and Harry both laughed a little at Severus' love of potions, and the other two boys packed up their things and stood waiting for Severus to do the same. Severus took longer (he had more books to put away on their shelves), but within ten minutes the three first years were on their way to the Charms Corridor.

When they reached the portrait Severus lit up as if he had never seen anything so beautiful as the picture. He then started babbling about founders and hidden chambers and something was mentioned about the Chamber of Secrets, but Tom and Harry both completely missed the entire spiel.

"Expecto patronum," Harry said to stop Severus' babbling. The blond woman nodded cheerfully and the portrait swung open to reveal shelf upon shelf of books. Severus had this loopy expression on his face like he had died and gone right to heaven. Thus it was that Severus rushed off into the books leaving Harry and Tom far in his wake.

"Well, someone looks happy," Tom commented with an eyebrow raised as the portrait swung shut behind him.

"He's a Ravenclaw, what did we really expect with all these books?" Harry replied leading Tom towards the stairs going down into the potions room.

"I don't know, but I'm sure I didn't expect him to look quite so…so…_loopy_," Tom said looking at a loss for the word he needed for that particular expression.

"I know what you mean. Ever since I met James and Chiara I thought he was bad, but suddenly I think he's worse, but in a different way," Harry commented.

"What do you mean by that?" Tom asked with a curious glance in Harry's direction.

"I mean, I used to think Severus was really excitable, you know what I mean. Like how he reacted when he realized we were both wizards like him. He was completely off the wall. Recently I thought he wasn't all that bad really, because comparing him to James or Chiara he's positively solemn, but seeing him rush into the room looking loopy like that…Well I'm thinking maybe he's just as bad, just in a different way," Harry said trying to explain what he meant. He must have done a good job because Tom just nodded his head in response looking as if he agreed whole-heartedly.

"Where do you think he went?" Tom asked as they reached the stairs.

"With four floors of books? Who knows, and I'm not patient enough to look for him," Harry said shaking his head at Severus' actions.

"So, don't you have the map?" Tom asked looking at Harry as if he had recently gone crazy.

"Oh, I forgot about it," Harry said pulling the map out of his bag. A muttered "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" and the map was visible. But then As Tom and Harry looked through the map they realized that this room, whatever it was, wasn't on the map. There was a little note in scrawling handwriting that Tom and Harry both recognized as Harry's which said "_Current Location unknown"_ . Tom and Harry exchanged looks before calling as loudly as they could for Severus.

A few minutes later Severus came running towards them, and managed to skid on the wooden floor (how you skin on a wooden floor covered with dust is a mystery), and he slid right past them and into the banister for the downward stairs. Tom and Harry both groaned in sympathetic pain and helped Severus to his feet.

"That hurt," Severus said rubbing his hip which had collided rather hard with the banister

"It looked like," Harry said trying not to laugh. The expression on Severus' face was just too funny. Needless to say Harry ended up laughing despite all his attempts not to.

"I'll get you somehow," Severus said glaring at Harry who was giggling rather helplessly.

"Come on, Harry says the potions lab is down these stairs," Tom said dragging Severus away from Harry who was only just starting to get himself under control. Tom really did like having his friends, he'd hate it if Severus killed Harry and got sent off to Azkaban.

The stairs were spiraling and tight, but at the bottom the potions lab was a dream come true for Severus. There were a series of desks set up with huge sinks, the kind you can clean a cauldron in. At each set of desks there were our work stations, obviously set up for four different cauldrons to be set up, which a prep area for ingredients for each station.

There was a walk-in storage closet against one wall which upon inspection was empty. But it was also set up perfectly, but for a wide range of ingredients to be stored there. A section was cooled like a refrigerator, and another was chilled like a freezer, the front section was kept extremely dry for the ingredients kept at room temperature, but there was also an area which was damp, and slightly warmer than the rest of the room. Severus seemed to understand the system as soon as he looked into the room, it took Tom several minutes more, and Harry had to wander the space for awhile before he got it. But he hadn't been all that interested to begin with.

"This is perfect. Now that we have a place to brew we can start on the heritage potion for Tom, and once we know what that says Tom will stop staring off into space hoping he's related to someone famous," Severus said matter-of-factly after he thoroughly investigated the entire room.

"Well, I want to go take a look at the books, see if I can't find some of the restricted section level books. I'm quite interested in the dark arts, and why they're classified as they are," Tom said wandering back up the stairs.

"Do you think we should worry about him?" Severus asked Harry looking concerned.

"No, I think he has enough sense not to do anything stupid that might get him into trouble," Harry responded before heading up the stairs himself. He was curious about that weapons room, there might be something good in there.

The three boys spent the rest of the day in the Book Room. Tom did seem to find his upper-level dark arts books, and Severus found a section of highly stained books that Harry assumed were potions. Harry spent awhile in the Weapons Room trying out the weapons until he accidently lost his grip on a funny shaped sword he thought he might have seen on one of Dudley's TV shows. It was very thin without a cross guard after all. It slipped right through his hand and sliced it up horribly. Needless to say he rushed out of the room and called for his friends at the top of his lungs. In less than five minutes the boys were careening out of the Book Room and down the Charms Corridor.

The School Nurse was not at all pleased with Harry slicing his hand up that way. She gave him a very long lecture as she went looking for the potions to heal the cut. Tom and Severus looked sheepish as if they should have known that Harry was messing around with sharp objects while he had zero cooridination.

Harry downed the potion he was given, and he lied down on the bed she instructed him to lie on. But when she came back to get rid of the gauze over the wound twenty minutes later the cut was healed at all, even though it should have been healed to the point there wasn't even a scar. After another lecture about messing with spelled blades the nurse cleaned the cut again and bandaged the hand properly. Problem with that was that now Harry couldn't use his right hand. And he was right handed.

"Look at it this way, now you'll be ambidextrous," Severus said in a heartening voice when Harry mentioned it. Harry glared at Severus for a minute before stalking off to dinner.

Sure enough Harry had to learn how to write with his left hand, and take blood replenishing potions every other day, as the blood hadn't clotted properly. He also had to change the bandages on his hand three times a day.

November rushed by, and soon it was going to be Christmas break. Severus, Tom, and Harry all signed on to stay for the holidays. They were joined by Chiara and Tancredo in Ravenclaw, and Michael in Gryffindor. There were a number of fifth year and above students staying to get some studying done early. They were mostly Ravenclaws with a number of Slytherins and Hufflepuffs tossed in. There was only one older Gryffindor who stayed, so it was just Harry and Michael in Gryffindor Tower. Tom only had two older girls (a fifth year and a seventh year), but Severus had about fifteen older students staying, as well as Chiara and Tancredo.

"So, why aren't we going to the orphanage for Christmas?" Severus asked one day when the three boys were in the Potions lab under the Book Room. Severus was brewing the potion for Tom while Tom read some book that looked splattered with something that looked suspiciously like blood, and Harry attempted to write an essay for Charms with his left hand.

Harry and Tom stared at Severus for a moment as if he had grown an extra head. Then they looked at each other exchanging a silent conversation.

"Have you ever spent Christmas with people who would rather you didn't exist?" Harry finally asked.

"Or liked to torment you weren't like they?" Tom added smoothly.

"Well, no, not really. My dad usually stayed sober for Christmas, tried to pretend we were the perfect little family and he didn't hate my mother for being a witch. He didn't particularly hate me though, I was his son after all," Severus said sounding bitter in a way neither boy had heard before.

"Well, if we went back to London we would be with people who would rather we didn't exist. The older kids will torment us, and the younger ones will cringe away from us. They adults will act as if we're cheerful people until Boxing Day when they'll go back to thinking I should be in the crazy bin and the other kids should have muzzles on them," Tom said sounding just as bitter as Severus.

Harry looked between his two friends for a moment before nodding and saying, "I'm going up to the Book Room, I want to find something." Harry then headed up the stairs into the huge room.

Over the last month they had figured out the system for the room. On the top floor were practical magics. These included charms, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts, and potions. The types of magics where you actually made something change.

The third floor had knowledge based magics. Like divination, arithmancy, runes, history, and astronomy. The magics where nothing physical happened. Also the magics that most students dread the most. The ones where they were almost never asked to pull out their wands, in other words, the boring subjects.

On the bottom floor were theories, and theoretical magics potions. It was also the illegal magics and potions which should only be looked at for research purposes and never actually used. Tom and Severus spent a good deal of time on that floor looking through the Dark Arts (illegal of course) and all the theoretical potions.

The second floor were ritual and traditional magics and potions. Those were the obscure potions and spells which hadn't been used regularly since the time of the Founders, also the magics used in old pure-blood rituals, which even the most traditional of pure-blood families had to look for. This was the floor Harry had been looking for.

Harry knew the perfect Christmas present for his two best friends, and best of all, it wouldn't cost him a knut.

**So, the wait on the update (that rhymes!) wasn't too long, shorter than the last one at least.**

**So I like where I stopped the chapter personally. I mean it's very mild cliff-hanger, which gives me great pleasure. I want everyone to be wondering what kind of traditional or ritual magic Harry might be looking for as a Christmas present to the other two boys. Anyone who can actually figure it out will get a mention in my author's notes for the next chapter. I don't think anyone will get it though…which makes me sad.**

**School's started, so I may be cutting back on my writing (I know, how can I cut back anymore than I already have?). But this year I have Senior project and I'm aiming to write a novella, so I'll need to dedicate a lot of time to that. But I'm also taking three Language Arts classes this year, so there might be a noticeable change. I know there will be more myth based references, since I'm taking a World Mythology class.**

**Well, till next time everyone.**


	10. I Might as Well Make it Formal

The rest of the time before Christmas passed without any more startling discoveries or suddenly appearing notes, in fact it was downright boring. The school nurse had found a potion to calm James down a little, and George was acting a little more open-minded. Chiara and Alise had started talking, and all the other first years worried about them, because they were the two most unusual girls in first year, maybe in the whole school. Tancredo seemed worried as well, which was never a good sign. But nothing had happened yet.

The most unusual occurrence during that time was the frequent disappearances of the three orphans of the school. It wasn't really all that unusual for there to be magical orphans, after all it was 1938, the muggle Great War hadn't been all that long ago. And while much of the war was on mainland Europe, Britain was affected, and even the magical war had casualties. Then there was the fact that there was a war brewing on the horizon in the muggle world. But they were mostly in the older years, and they were usually sent to live with a distant relative, it was very unusual that there would be magical orphans in an orphanage, and even more unusual that there would be three from the same orphanage. Thus it was that most of the school knew their faces, even if they didn't know their names or anything about them. And so it was that it was noticed that they disappeared so often.

But Harry disappeared from even Tom and Severus' watchful eyes most of the time. No one really knew what he was doing, just as most of the school had no idea what the other two boys were working on (Tom's potion, which was almost complete). The taller two boys were curious about what Harry might be up to, but they figured he wouldn't be stupid enough to actually hurt himself again. He had lost the use of his right hand for the last couple of months because the nurse still couldn't find a way to fix it.

The other boys were actually right; Harry wasn't doing anything to injure himself, although he had hit a snag in the fact that he couldn't use his right hand, and his left hand was still very weak. It just wasn't very easy to suddenly switch hands. Then there was the fact that his wand wasn't meant to be wielded with his left hand, it was intended for a right-handed wizard. Which it wasn't that big of a deal, but Harry's magic was feeling slightly foreign, as if it wasn't his anymore. It worked, and just as well as it used to, but it was highly unsettling for the raven-haired boy.

On Christmas morning Harry woke before Michael, meaning he was the first awake in Gryffindor Tower. At the foot of his bed were two small packages. Michael's bed had a pile of presents overflowing off his bed, and onto the floor around his bed. But Harry didn't really mind much, he had never really had presents before. One very small present was the best he could hope for on Christmas, and it was more likely than not a pair of Dudley's old clothes.

One present on Harry's bed was green, and the other was a sort of patchy blue, as if it hadn't been colored properly. The green present was from Severus, and it was three vials of color-changing potion. They changed the color of some part of the drinker's anatomy to whatever they wanted it to be. Harry smiled at it, but didn't think he would ever use it; why would he need to change the colors on his body?

The patchy blue present turned out to be wrapped in bits of badly colored parchment. It looked as if Tom had tried his hand at color-changing charms and didn't so very well. The present inside was a bottle of color-changing ink, which would change according to the mood the writer was in as they were using the ink. That was a present Harry thought he would use.

And as Harry carefully put his presents into his trunk and got dressed he couldn't help but wonder what Severus and Tom would think of his present.

Severus was woken rather rudely by Tancredo, who was very enthusiastic with the fact that it was Christmas morning. Tancredo looked to be halfway through his presents, judging by the wrapping paper strewn across the floor.

Severus had a badly colored green package at the end of his bed, and a small envelope which had almost unreadable scrawl on the front.

Severus opened the package first and found a set of crystal vials filled with various potions ingredients. The note inside said that he had specially stolen them from Professor Slughorn's personal stores. And while Severus felt a bit guilty about the fact they had been stolen, he really wanted them. There was gillyweed, and lacewing flies, and moon lilies. Those were all things he didn't have, and gillyweed and moon lilies were dead rare. He wasn't going to give _those_ back.

The envelope was rather obviously from Harry, the handwriting gave it away. After all Harry was still trying to function with his left hand. But the note inside surprised him a bit. But he smiled and tucked it into his pocket. Only Harry would think of something like that.

Tom woke to an empty room, which made him feel rather uneasy. After all he hadn't slept in a room by himself since early July. After a few moments of looking around the room uncomfortably he got up and got dressed. It was only then that he noticed the package and envelope at the end of his bed.

The package was a very deep red, and Tom couldn't help but feel jealous. Severus had obviously managed to master the color-changing charm. But inside was an exploding potion. There was only one vial, because, according to the note Severus sent with the present, one drop onto an absorbent surface will make the surface explode. The more absorbent, the bigger the explosion.

The note was from Harry, and Tom stared at uncomprehendingly for close to half an hour before he tucked the note into his pocket, he couldn't quite understand why Harry would do that. Why anyone would do that. There wasn't anything in it for Harry, and to do something so big and drastic there had to be something in it for Harry. But he would sit next to Harry at breakfast and see if he would explain it.

At breakfast the five tables that normally took up the Great Hall were replaced but four smaller round tables of varying sizes, and when Harry an Michael made their way down to the Great Hall together they found Tom, Severus, Chiara, and Tancredo all sitting at one of the tables. They made a beeline for that table, but another was filled with the school staff, and the other two held all the other students in the school.

The first years table had two seats open (as if it had been planned for the first years to sit together that morning), one was between Tancredo and Severus, and the other was between Tom and Severus. Harry took the one between Tom and Severus, while Michael took the one between Severus and Tancredo.

As soon as Harry sat down he knew Severus and Tom were going to say something about the notes he sent them last night through the house-elves. So to stall the inevitable he began filling his plate with breakfast. He took cinnamon rolls and bacon, a strange combination, but at the same time seeming Christmassy in Harry's mind.

It was as Harry started on his first cinnamon roll that Tom finally started.

"Why?" Tom asked, and Harry didn't need to ask why what because he already knew what.

"Because you two are already like my brothers, I might as well make it formal," Harry said trying to sound casual, but sounding nervous instead.

"Only you would think to do this for a Christmas present. I suppose you'll need a few drops of blood to finish it off?" Severus asked his friend, no his brother now.

"Yes, the blood adoption stuff is pretty complex, but I need some of Tom's blood to mix with mine, then some of yours to mix with both of ours. No offense to you Severus, but it's an age thing. Tom is older than you," Harry explained looking apologetically at Severus.

"He is? How do you know that?" Severus asked looking taken aback.

"Well, Tom's almost twelve, He'll be twelve on the 31st, and you won't be twelve until the 6th of January. I'm the youngest actually. I won't be twelve till the 31st of July," Harry told Severus calmly as he picked up a bit of bacon off his plate.

"Why do you know our birthdays, I don't remember telling you about mine," Tom asked looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"Oh, well I took a midnight walk a couple weeks ago and it's possible that it led me to the student files, and it's possible that I might have peeked into them to find out certain birthdays for a certain blood adoption ritual," Harry said with a wide grin. It was then that one of the seventh year girl at one of the other tables suddenly screamed.

The first years all turned to look at the girl to see she was a pretty Ravenclaw girl with smooth black hair falling in rivers over her back. But the reason she screamed was far more interesting to everyone in the Hall, even her rather plain looking boyfriend, who ten minutes earlier had been watching her eat adoringly as if she was the most amazing thing to ever walk the face of the earth.

But the reason for the screaming was a small red snake with golden edges to its scales. The snake also (to anyone who could understand snakes) seemed very confused as to how it got into the Great Hall, not to mention into some girl's scrambled eggs.

The snake was of course Ruaraidh. So Harry got up and practically ran across the hall to the other table. Harry grabbed his familiar with a sort of abruptness he wouldn't have used had the situation been any other.

"How did I get into the Eating Place?" Ruaraidh asked wrapping himself around Harry's arm. So of course Harry answered, which was probably the stupidest thing he had done to date.

"I have no idea, why don't you tell me. You're the one who landed in someone's eggs," Harry hissed irritably. There was a mass intake of breath, as no one had had expected Harry to be a Parseltongue, even if he did have a pet snake.

"You…you're a parselmouth?" one of the older students asked nervously. When Harry looked up he saw it was the pretty girl whose eggs Ruaraidh had landed in.

"I guess, I mean I can understand snakes if that's what you mean," Harry said completely confused over everyone's reactions. Even the other first years looked a little nervous. Michael especially looked nervous over the fact his dorm mate could talk to snakes.

**Hey, this chapter is a little shorter than most of the others, but this was kind of where I wanted to stop it.**

**Congrats to childofflameandwave, who got so incredibly close to what I was going to do for Harry's present to the other two boys. And thanks to everyone who guessed, or who just reviewed the chapter. **

**So a couple of people have been wondering what I was going to do about Harry and Tom being parselmouths and what I was going to do with Ruaraidh's mysterious powers. So this chapter and the next one, and possibly the one after that will be exploring those bits of their lives. Most especially what their other friends will think. Such as Harry's dorm mates, Minerva, and Alise. All those characters will play decently large parts in the story. Minerva already sort of knew about it if you'll remember, but you'll most likely also remember that she hasn't played much part since, because of her nervousness over it.**

**Well that's all I really have to say for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.**


	11. Is That Incest?

The rest of Christmas break was spent with Michael avoiding Harry like he had plague or something equally horrible. The older students were slightly more understanding, but in very strange ways. Like the Slytherins, they were constantly being far nicer to Harry than they ever had been before, and by extension they were nicer to Severus and the other first years (minus Michael, who was never around Harry). The Ravenclaws (the older ones of course) were constantly trying to ask Harry questions, about how long he'd been able to talk to snakes, and was it inborn, or learned, was he actually related to Salazar Slytherin or was that a myth that only his descendants had that ability. The Hufflepuffs were generally just accepting. They didn't bother asking questions or treating him any differently, they mostly just treated him the way they had before.

The only exception to that rule was the pretty seventh year Harry learned was named Annabel Sol. She treated Harry as if he was the most evil wizard to ever walk the planet. In other words, she refused to speak his name and left any room he entered. Her boyfriend John Moon followed her around like a faithful dog, but he usually gave Harry an apologetic look as he followed her out of the room.

It was with relief that Harry returned to classes on the fifth of January. But then again, by the end of the day the number of stares, whispers, questions, 'kind' acts, and fearful glances had multiplied. By lunch of the first day everyone knew that Harry could talk to snakes, and by dinner everyone knew how they were going to treat him.

Surprisingly George became Harry's refuge in Gryffindor Tower. It was because George was convinced that you couldn't actually talk to snakes, and therefore it couldn't possibly be the mark of a dark wizard or a descendant of Slytherin. James Amber had sided with Michael and was actively avoiding Harry as well, which was rather unsurprisingly a relief. There were fewer energetic interruptions to his thoughts, or conversations that way.

The twins were still hanging on Harry at half the meals, but they were also hanging on James half the time. It was around then that Harry realized that he was popular among the first years. James was only popular in Gryffindor Tower, and that was because his older brother who had graduated the year before had been the captain of the quidditch team for three years running, and had won them the quidditch cup all three years. Severus, Tom, and a girl by the name of Jane Towers in Hufflepuff were the more popular people in their own houses. Jane's father had run for minister in the last election (two years before) and won by a very slim margin. Severus was well known for his abilities in potions and his generally scholarly nature. Tom on the other hand had somehow become king of the Slytherin first-years. No one outside of Slytherin house knew how he had managed it, but Harry suspected he had brought up his own abilities with Parseltongue and made it sound like he was Slytherin's heir.

"So, are you ready to do this?" Harry asked drawing the last rune on the floor of one of the study rooms off the Book Room. There was a table in the middle of the circle of runes which held a bowl Harry had already covered with the appropriate runes.

"I suppose," Tom replied helping Harry to take the bandage off his hand. Once the blood spotted bandage had been removed Harry held his sluggishly bleeding hand over the bowl and allowed exactly seven drops of blood to fall into the bowl. They quickly bound Harry's hand back up.

Tom then took a quill trimmer and pricked one of his fingers. They allowed seven drops to fall into the bowl, and Harry took a thin glass rod (which was taken from the potion's classroom, and thoroughly cleaned), and stirred the 14 drops of blood together. The quill trimmer was cleaned carefully and Severus pricked his own finger with it, and another seven drops were added to the bowl. Harry stirred the blood again.

Then a potion which Harry had to brew seven times before he got it right was added into the bowl. The entire mixture was stirred seven times clockwise, seven time counter-clockwise, then again seven times clockwise. The cold mixture started bubbling as if it was boiling at that point and Harry filled three glass cups with the liquid, making sure the same amount was in each cup, and they had collected every last drop.

Then they drank it.

Each of the boys felt something different as they swallowed the swirling silver liquid. Severus had a funny fluttering feeling in his head, as if there was a butterfly trying to get out. Tom on the other hand felt a funny clenching around his heart, it was a bit like when you swallowed something and it got most of the way down before getting stuck. Harry felt as if his hands had been stuffed into a bowl full of ice, and left there for twenty minutes. A glance at Harry's right hand showed it was bleeding more freely than before.

"Never let me do that again," Severus muttered lightly pounding the side of his head as if he was trying to get water out of his ears.

"Me neither," Tom said swallowing as if trying to get something to go down.

"That was weirder than the book suggested it would be," Harry admitted getting new bandages out of his bag and wrapping them tightly around the older blood-soaked bandages. It was a good thing Harry wasn't squeamish.

"Well, the heritage potion should be done if we want to go down and do that since we're already here," Severus suggested shaking his head and seeming to give up his attempts.

"Sure, my finger's still bleeding a little, if we're fast we can do it without pricking me again," Tom said starting towards the door.

"Yeah, let's do that," Harry said rubbing out a couple key runes in a very specific order.

"Okay, do you need help?" Severus asked looking to Harry who was getting to the less important runes.

"No, it'll be easier for me to do it by myself anyway. I'll meet you two down there," Harry told them rubbing out a rune that looked suspiciously like three men.

"Okay, we'll meet you there," Severus said following Tom out the door.

The heritage potion had to stew for exactly a month, even though it only took a couple of days to get the ingredients in. There were certain times the potion had to be stirred a certain way, or more water added or something like that, but it wasn't very labor intensive.

The hardest part was actually after the potion was finished. When it was done you had to let it cool completely and add three drops of blood. Then stir it three times clockwise, followed by one stir in the opposite direction until it turned black. Then you dipped a piece of parchment into the potion, completely submerged it, and let it sit for exactly 21 seconds before getting it out. The potion would gather into words if it was made correctly.

Severus of course made the potion correctly. He was better with potions than most seventh years students, although he didn't have the sheer number of potions that he had brewed and could remember the ingredients and instructions for.

So when the parchment was removed from the cauldron the words immediately began forming.

_Tom Marvolo Riddle_

_Born: December 31, 1926_

_Mother: Merope Gaunt_

_Father: Tom Riddle, Sr._

_Maternal Grandfather: Marvolo Gaunt_

_Maternal Grandmother: Merissa Gaunt_

_Paternal Grandfather: Jonathan Riddle_

_Paternal Grandmother: Jane Riddle nee Stone_

_Direct Heir of Salazar Slytherin_

_Direct Heir of Cadmus Peverell_

_Indirect Heir of Soloman Slytherin_

The first thing any of them asked was from Harry who asked, "Who the heck is Soloman Slytherin?"

Three weeks later the three boys were once again in the Book Room looking through the history section on the third floor looking for some mention of Soloman Slytherin. The best they had gotten a short mention that Soloman Slytherin was the first recorded Potion's master. The fact that none of the books they had looked in had mentioned what he had gotten his mastery for doing (masteries in the wizarding world could only be earned through extreme skill and an extremely useful discovery), or how he might have been related to Salazar Slytherin frustrated all three boys, but most especially Tom. Tom had been very excited to discover he hadn't lied to his house mates at all, he really was Slytherin's heir. But now he couldn't find out who Soloman might have been.

"Hey, I think I found something," Severus said suddenly into the near silence broken only by the turning of pages.

"What?" Tom asked excitedly.

"The Life and Times of the Founders?" Harry asked looking at the title, "Why didn't we look at that one three weeks ago?"

"We didn't find it until this morning," Severus retorted looking annoyed at Harry's interruption, "But I think Soloman Slytherin might have been why Salazar left the castle."

"He left?" Harry asked looking completely clueless.

"Yes, there was a huge fight between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor over blood-purity so everyone assumed Slytherin left the castle over their fight. But it says in this book that Slytherin had a wife named Perella, a daughter, Mariell, and two sons, Sorcier and Soloman, and this book says that Soloman was disowned by Salazar's father, Justicus. Apparently it was theorized that Salazar left the castle to plead with his father for his son's behalf, but instead ended up being trapped within his father's house.

"So, you're probably descended from Sorcier or Mariell, but at some point the two parts of the line reconnected, but diverged again. But it doesn't say why Soloman was being disowned. That's apparently a mystery for the ages," Severus explained showing Harry and Tom the book as proof.

"But, is that incest?" Harry asked looking nervous over that idea. Tom hit him over the head.

"Not if there was a large enough number of generations separating them," Tom told him looking at Harry with scorn over the question.

"It was just a question. No need to be so mean about it," Harry said rubbing the back of his head and sitting back down in his chair.

"Sorry, but it was a stupid question…_little_ brother," Tom said grinning at the last. Harry groaned at what was already becoming an old joke.

"Since I setup the ritual and came up with idea don't I get to be the older brother?" Harry asked disliking the teasing he was already getting from his 'older brothers.'

"Nope, it's a matter of birthdays," Severus replied quoting Harry's own words.

"You know, I hate you two," Harry said conversationally.

"We love you, too," Severus and Tom said in an eerily identically.

The three boys had decided that since Tom had never really had his birthday celebrated, and it was rare Severus' father was sober enough to let him have a decent birthday the two boys had decided to move their birthdays to the third of January. But it meant they had decided that since they were going to share the same birthday they should go all out on the twin thing. But it also meant that Harry was still left in the dust as their little brother, his birthday being at the end of July as it was.

Harry stared at his older brothers for a moment with his 'stern glare' which had so impressed Minerva that day on Diagon Alley. But after a moment he remembered that day, and the fact that Minerva had become one of those who avoided him as if he had plague. The girl he had wanted to be in Gryffindor for was terrified of an ability he had possessed as long as he could remember, and he couldn't control.

Harry looked away from the older boys and looked back at his book in time to notice a small footnote at the bottom of a paragraph about famous potions masters. It said: _Reference taken from __Potion's Masters: A Manual of the Best __by: Marina Peverell_. It was a tiny and unimportant note but the name struck a chord, he was pretty sure he had read it before. There was of course the Cadmus Peverell that Tom was descended from, but the name Marina seemed familiar too.

"Hey, guys, Have either of you heard of a Marina Peverell?" Harry asked the other two boys who had been staring at Harry before Harry had looked up.

"No," They said together. But this time it was more of a coincidence thing than a trying-to-be-twins thing

"Oh, what have I read that neither of you have then?" Harry asked his adopted brothers.

"No idea, but are you sure you need to worry about it?" Severus asked Harry looking confused by the line of questioning.

Harry didn't reply but instead wracked his brain until suddenly he had an image of a large book which he knew was sitting in his trunk upstairs in Gryffindor Tower. So without another word he rocketed out of his seat and out of the Book Room entirely.

"Where did you go?" Tom asked worriedly when Harry came running back into the Book Room twenty minutes later. He didn't seem particularly winded, but his cheeks were pink from running and he had been gone far too short an amount of time for him not to have run all the way to Gryffindor Tower and back.

"To get this book," Harry said placing it on the table in front of his brothers. It was his Family Book, which Tom and Severus hadn't seen even a corner of since they had left for Hogwarts.

"Why?" Severus asked cautiously.

"Because of this," Harry said flipping to book open and to a page titled, "Marina Potter nee Peverell."

"Then we're related?" Tom asked curiously reading the page. Apparently Marina was a highly prolific author, she had close to a hundred books published while she was alive, and close to forty published by her son after her death. She was also the last descendant of Ignatous Peverell to have his name. She was his great-granddaughter, and Harry's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great…well a lot of greats grandmother. She was just a little too old to go to Hogwarts when it was first opened.

"Distantly enough that if I had a daughter and you had a son they could get married without it being incest," Harry said with a grin. Tom lightly cuffed the back of Harry's head.

"Who would have thought?" Severus said with a grin shaking his head.

**So, this was a really fast update…But I was inspired to write this chapter. I probably should have been writing my Senior Project Proposal for Lit, but this was better.**

**While this chapter isn't long enough to make up for the shortness of the last chapter, maybe the quick update will make up for it.**

**I know it's only insinuated that Tom is actually descended from Cadmus (the second brother who got the resurrection stone for those who can't remember), but for my story it made sense. Also I felt I needed to let Tom and Harry know that they were actually distantly related. I mean really distantly. If they didn't have prominent pure-blood lines in the background they wouldn't even be related. Like if they were farmer or bakers. Anyone who didn't catch that allusion, it's okay. It's from Wheel of Time, and while I can't remember the book it's the scene where Rand finds out that his mom was Elayne's dad's first wife. So they share a half brother, but they aren't related.**

**So, did everyone like my heritage potion and blood adoption rituals? They're pretty clichéd if you ask me, but I figure that they're the good way to write them. Yes, the distinctly different reactions the three boys had to the ritual do mean something. It will be explained eventually, but it will be sometime after Harry's hand is fixed, which will be awhile yet. At least during the summer between first and second years.**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time I update.**


	12. She'd Make a Basilisk Nervous

"Hey, I found that book," Harry said browsing through books again late in February.

"What book?" Tom asked sounding highly irritable. He hadn't been sleeping enough over the last month, and he was obsessing over Soloman Slytherin, because they couldn't find anything on him.

"The one by Marina Peverell," Harry replied pulling the huge dusty tome from its shelf. Tom looked over at the book and dismissed it as unimportant. Severus however came over and sat next to Harry. He was always up for learning more about potions and the great potions master.

Harry flipped straight to the index in the back, much to Severus' annoyance. But within a minute Harry was flipped to the beginning of a chapter called "The Beginnings of Mastery." There was a picture of a man under the title as well. He was smiling cheerfully, and every once and awhile he would wave up at Harry and Severus from his place. Under the picture was the caption, "Soloman Slytherin, First Potions Master and co-founder of Beuxbaton Academie."

"Hey Tom, there's a picture of Soloman here he looks like a nice guy. Not at all like that sarcastic git in the portrait outside," Harry told Tom looking up from the picture. While none of the boys had mentioned it, they had all long since figured out who the people in the portraits were.

"Hey, don't insult my ancestor!" Tom cried half joking, half serious.

"I'm just stating a fact. Soloman looks a lot nicer than his father," Harry replied calmly turning back to read the book. There was a short paragraph which caught Harry's eye right away. So he read it to his brothers.

"_Soloman Slytherin earned the first mastery in the newly forming subject of potions when he created the Numbness Potion, which could be used against the newly invented Cruciatus Curse. Several years later Slytherin created a potion to lessen the pain caused by cutting curses, and bone shattering hexes. This second discovery led to the branch of study into healing potions and spells, and Slytherin is often called the first Healer as well at the first Potions Master."_

Tom, Harry, and Severus exchanged looks before Tom said, "That's pretty awesome."

The last few days of January passed uneventfully, and February passed the same way. In fact before the boys felt they could blink it was the end of Easter Holidays and the entire school was going insane over exams. The teachers piled on homework, and the students struggled through it, many of them doing research and review outside of what was assigned to make sure they did well (those were mostly Ravenclaws although the odd Hufflepuff or Slytherin might do the same).

Tom and Severus forced a reluctant Harry to really and truly study the material, instead of their search through topics which interested them. Tom had recently begun looking through Healing spells and potions, hoping to find more one Soloman Slytherin. Severus had begun haunting the fourth floor and carrying giant piles of books down to the potions lab. Harry had found his love with the defensive and offensive jinxes, hexes, and curses. He would sit studying a spell for hours absently waving his wand and muttering incantations. The Gryffindors had quickly learned to get away from Harry when he was doing that, because otherwise you'd likely find yourself petrified, or vomiting slugs, or something equally nasty or annoying.

All three boys got through their exams with passing (and better) grades. Tom got a record breaking 100 percent in History of Magic. No one did that well on the recently deceased Professor Binn's exams, not even when he was alive. Severus got the highest score on the Potions exam that any first year had ever achieved in Slughorn's class. But everyone expected it, he was something of a potion's prodigy. Harry made a similar showing on the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam, he even got extra credit for knowing about some more obscure theories about the nature of what caused a dark aura around an object or person.

All too soon it was time for the farewell feast. Halfway through the meal a note popped up next to Harry's plate, and he tucked it into his pocket. He then stared at both his older brothers until they noticed him staring. Then Harry sort of wrote in the air and the older boys got the idea that a new note had appeared, so they nodded and when the feast broke up they waited for Harry outside the doors.

"So, are you ready to see what it says?" Harry asked pulling the note from his pocket as the three boys started walking off towards the Charms corridor.

"Yes of course!" Tom said looking annoyed at Harry's question, of course he wanted to see.

"Of course you idiot!" Severus added right on the tail of Tom's comment. So it ended up sounding like both boys said "Yes of course your idiot" which worked out for the twin thing.

"Geez guys, you could be a little nicer you know. I bet most older brothers are a lot nicer than you two," Harry grumbled as they gave the founders their password and stepped through the portrait. The three boys didn't notice the two girls who had followed them and listened to the conversation, and the password into the Book Room.

"So, the note," Harry said laying it on one of the tables.

_Harry,_

_I see you've reached the end of your first year unscathed, or you know, at lease alive, and that's always a good thing. I doubt you'll get into as much trouble as I have, but soon you'll have to survive without me. I only have an hour before you'll appear in the orphanage, and once that happens all of history will change, and I won't have ever gone to the past, so this is a good bye of sorts._

_No doubt you've found a few notes, but I very much doubt you've managed to find them all. Don't forget Gringott's, I went through a lot of explaining and working with my ancestors to convince them to allow you into the ancestral vault, and to allow me to place things there. Also I suggest you get a pet, they're very useful when you need a friend and don't trust anyone._

_Also, if you get a chance see the beach, and go camping. Go abroad if the chance presents itself. Please see the world, and live life to its fullest. I've saved three lost boys from a future where they all have endings which aren't so happy, so I want you all three to be good people, and good friends._

_Good luck in life and love. You'll find more words from me, but for me these are my parting respects. So good-bye mini me and Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, if they're anywhere near you._

_ Harry J. Potter_

"Good-bye Harry," All three boys muttered and murmured to the scrap of parchment, not noticing the girls standing behind them, listening as Harry read the note aloud.

"What in the world does that mean?" Alise's voice rang out loudly in the silent dusty room. The boys jumped guiltily and looked over at the girls. The other was Chiara with a wide grin on her face.

"Um…" Was all any of the boys could get out, and that was coming from Harry anyways, he was always the least articulate.

"So you three have cracked the theory of time travel and made it a reality? That's pretty interesting. I've always been interested in time. I suggest you explain everything to me, or I'll set Chiara out to make it not only known that she's a minor seer but also that you're all time travelers. Seers have a very high credibility as it's impossible for a true seer to lie," Alise threatened and blackmailed them all with a tone of voice as if commenting on the weather.

"I suddenly understand why you were sorted into Slytherin," Harry commented stepping away from the table towards the shelves of books on time travel theory.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked Harry following him a step or two before stopping again.

"He's getting something that he believes will explain things better than he can," Chiara told her with a funny look in her eyes.

Tom looked at the Ravenclaw with suspicion. He didn't feel comfortable with the idea that history was destined, or that people could predict what would happen. He was much more comfortable with the philosophy that the future was what you made it with the work of your hands and the sweat of your brows.

Harry lifted three books off a shelf and dropped them onto the table much to Severus' annoyance and Alise's discomfort. The dust it kicked up was considerable. One of the books was small and pocket-sized but the second book was bigger than your average dictionary by a large margin, and the third was even bigger.

"These three are the ones I've found most helpful. It's best to start with this small one, it was intended as a teacher for the very basics of time. But then I don't know why really. I mean as far as we can tell from the various books in here time manipulation was never taught in any capacity in this school, or any other either." Harry rambled opening the smallest book and flipping through the pages. It was called _The Beginnings of Time Manipulation_ by: Emmalia Sedey.

"I see…And you talk too much Potter," Alise said lifting the book from Harry's fingers. Harry released the book only reluctantly. It was a very valuable book. It was a first edition, and the book had gone out of print back in the 1880s, it was also signed with a note written by Emmalia herself, who was known as the first person to ever craft an actual temporal spell. It was very basic, allowed time to stand still for all but the caster for what would be perceived as one minute.

"Sorry MacBell, but you'd make a rampaging rhino nervous," Harry told her with a small glare. Harry and Alise didn't like each other, even though they didn't actually dislike each other either. Harry being in Gryffindor and Alise in Slytherin meant that they didn't really interact all that much, but both Tom and Severus (who both spent more time with Alise than Harry) thought that given the chance the two could be very good friends, and Tom had been planning to get them talking anyway.

"No, she'd make a basilisk nervous," Tom countered with a snort.

"She'd make a manticore nervous," Severus added calmly, with a very Slytherin-looking smirk.

"She'd make a sphinx nervous, too," Harry put it topping both fearsome creatures for one known for its calm nature.

"Oh shut it you three," Alise snapped not seeming herself at all. But then only Tom had ever seen her while she was studying. She was a force to be reckoned with then, of course not one you wanted to mess with at all. Alise with a book in her hand was like a starving lion with a piece of meat: not something you wanted to get in the middle of.

"They are right though. It's pretty foggy but I think you're going to end up intimidating a lot of animals in the future, there's even a basilisk, although for some reason Tom and Harry are both involved…And so is McGonagall. Why's she involved? She's not even on speaking terms with any of us," Chiara said adding her own two cents to the situation.

"You shut it too. Although I love your prophetic insight, I don't need you siding with these idiot boys. They have enough ideas of their own. Like Tom changing his birthday at the last minute after I had gone through all the trouble of getting into Dumbledore's office to look it up. I'm still mad at you by the way," Alise said adding a glare at Tom and for good measure Severus and Harry as well.

"Well…I'm going to go see if I can't find a couple books on healing to look through for the summer. I don't think Matron's going to be very happy about having to pay for bandages for your hand. She dislikes us enough as it is," Tom said rushing off up the stairs to escape his housemate.

"I love it when he runs away. It makes me feel so powerful,' Alise said with a satisfied smirk. Severus and Harry found themselves shuddering and taking an extra step away from the Slytherin girl. It was best not to mess with dragons after all

They had to shrink the books to make it possible to move all of them up to their various dormitories to pack them into their trunks. Tom had managed to find a whole section on healing, but they couldn't bring all of them, because they had to enlarge them before putting them into their trunks. And none of the three had enough room for more than ten or so books, depending on size. So they were very selective on which books they brought. Five of the books were on general healing (one written by Soloman Slytherin himself), two were on magical injuries, and the other three were on injuries inflicted by magical objects. It turned out that only three of the books were very big at all, so that meant that each boy could pick as many as six or seven books of their own choosing to bring with them.

Harry picked out two books from the section on Defense Against the Dark Art (from the subsection on dark objects), one from the section on ancient rituals (specifically about how to see alternate futures), and three from the shelf hidden in one corner of the weapon's room (one about the handling of swords, one of sword forms, and one on basic bare-handed techniques).

Tom picked three extra books about healing, and two about the history of magic (unfortunately there was nothing more recent than 1790 in any of the books). Severus added six different books about potions, including one that had a number of very dark potions such as one which had no purpose but to make people feverish, delusional, and in excruciating pain.

All five students split off with a silent agreement not to talk about what had happened and what the two girls had discovered. Harry made his way alone up to Gryffindor tower feeling a little jealous of the other two boys. They both had the girls to walk with them to their dorms, and Harry was left the odd man out. He found himself wondering whether he would always be the odd one out from that time forward, and he feared he would be.

The next morning the five first years took a compartment to themselves. It wasn't all that often that one compartment held students from three of the four houses, but it was often enough that no one stopped to stare at them, which none of them would have liked. Tom maybe, he disliked being left in the shadows, but he knew how Harry felt about his popularity (or the fear that rolled off in waves from some of the more narrow-minded students (mostly Gryffindors)) and could guess that Severus' feelings would be about the same.

"So what will you three do this summer?" Alise asked cracking open the window and pulling her hair dyes out of her trunk.

"We'll be at the orphanage. Matron might let us go to the cinema sometime, and we'll probably go to Diagon Alley near the end. Mostly we'll probably be reading," Tom answered with a grimace. He hated the orphanage and the fact that they couldn't really do much there, and all the other kids were too stupid to be worth their time except to torment as a way to pass a little time. Of course Harry was a little too noble to torment the other kids, and he was pretty sure Severus wouldn't be fond of the idea either. Which was funny because from what Tom could tell they both had as much reason to hate the stupid muggles as he did.

"Oh…Well maybe Mum will let me invite you three over for a week or so, then you won't be trapped in the orphanage all summer," Alise offered looking a little uncomfortable.

"No, Matron won't let us go to stay overnight somewhere, and we'll have to sneak out to get to get to Diagon Alley for school supplies. She's afraid we're going to run away, and I would if I had some kind of place to go. This summer should be better though, Harry and Severus will both be there. Then there's Ruaraidh, Merlin, and Vert. So we can write to you and Ruaraidh can entertain us by scaring all the older girls out of their skins. And Merlin…well dear Merlin will be able to scare all but one girl in the entire place, all the rest hate mice," Tom plotted to himself at the end there. So as Tom continued to mutter Alise dyed her hair black again, while Severus and Chiara played a game of Wizard's Chess and Harry pulled one of the books on swordplay out of his trunk and settled down to read.

It was a full three hours before Tom realized that no one was paying even one lick of attention to him. By that point Severus had extracted his own book, Chiara and Alise were playing chess, and Harry had fallen asleep and was dribbling drool down his chin.

"Anyone ever notice how Harry doesn't really get involved?" Tom asked suddenly, but quietly so he wouldn't wake Harry.

"Yeah, but what are we going to do about it? It's not like we could just tell Harry to get involved or something," Severus responded setting his book aside, "I'm worried about him. He's only on speaking terms with maybe five people in his entire house, and he never really tries to get along with anyone but you and me."

"Yeah…I've only ever seen Peters talking to him. But I think that's because he doesn't believe it's possible to talk to snakes. But that doesn't even surprise me anymore. He was saying that magic didn't exist all the way up until Christmas break," Tom told him looking over at Harry. He wasn't just joking around when he called Harry his little brother, he really had a brotherly affection for the slightly younger boy.

"Well, that's true of course, but we still need to do something for him, I just don't know what yet," Severus told him looking at Harry as well.

"Maybe you two should send an owl off to the twins. They don't distance themselves quite as much, maybe they'd be willing to sit with Harry in the common room or something," Alise suggested looking away from her game which she was losing (rather spectacularly).

"I don't know, but I'll try this summer. He's done a lot for us, so we need to find a way to do something for him," Tom said effectively ending the conversation. He leaned into the window and joined Harry in Morpheus' arms.

**So I'm really really sorry about the late update. But life sort of got in the way lately. First there was my job and swim team and school, and that took up most of my time. There was also the evilness called Senior Project, and there was Hamlet and a project for Film. Then there were no less than four colds, two trips to the doctor's and a new boyfriend. Then we toss in getting fired from my job and the madness of both Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays…well let's just say life was conspiring against me.**

**But anyway, I brought Chiara and Alise into the forefront with the whole discovering the time travel thing. And one of my friends mentioned that she didn't understand why Alise was a Slytherin, because in personality she's somewhere between a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw usually. But she does have an ambitious streak, and she's good at black-mailing people. Even when she threatens people with absolutely no way to back it up they somehow find themselves doing what she wants. **

**Anyway, I brought up who in the world Soloman really is in this one too, and this chapter starts to solidify which of two paths I took for this story, so it's almost completely locked in.**

**Any suggestions or critiques are VERY appreciated, I wouldn't even mind a flame, it worries me that I've never gotten one. But please, everyone send me a quick review even one word is greatly beloved. Also if you can come up with a word or event you want tossed in I'll do what I can. I've got a couple things from my sister I'm working on putting in…although I'll have to find that stupid review to get them all…Ah, well. They'll get in there eventually.**


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